President Donald Trump just finished a major trip throughout the Middle East rattling off a number of potential big deals.
But, unfortunately, much of Trump’s good work often gets overshadowed by needless unforced errors. In this case, it was his eager acceptance of Qatar’s gifting of a new Air Force One plane for the president’s use.
The Democrats and the media have had a field day playing this decision up, overshadowing all of the other major accomplishments that Trump secured during his trip.
For starters, he’s brought the region’s nations back into the fold to align not only with the United States, but also potentially with Israel, as a major block against Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. He’s also securing major investments in the United States and opening Mideast markets further to more U.S. investment. All good stuff.
But here are the reasons why Trump should say no to Qatar.
- Qatar Sucks.
Qatar is one of the most duplicitous nations on the planet; it has only about two million residents and a few hundred thousand citizens. It exists primarily to make money and to survive with all its debauchery in an area of strictly conservative Muslim religious societies.
- Who’s building this plane?
The gifted aircraft is an already constructed plane that would have to be transformed into an Air Force One. But the idea of taking a plane from a foreign country is dangerous indeed. Who knows what’s been embedded in such a plane? Bad idea.
- Who gets to fly it?
Let’s assume for a moment that this was a plane constructed from scratch here in the U.S. by Boeing under the supervision of our government, but paid for by Qatar. That would pass the espionage test, but then we have a question of who gets to use this gifted plane. If it’s gifted to the United States of America and gets handed down from one president to the next for official use, that problem would be ameliorated. But there’s talk about this plane going to the Trump Library after Trump retires. That’s an awful, and possibly illegal, concept. Would Trump and his family then be able to utilize the plane after they are out of office? That’s what makes the acceptance of this plane so problematic.
- It’s Killing Trump’s Message.
But above all, this is an unforced error because taking the jet distracts from Trump’s other accomplishments. And it deflates the Republicans’ attacks on Biden and his family that benefited so handsomely from far less transparent activities with foreign nations.
There will be controversies down the road and hills to die on. This is not one of them. Don’t take this plane.