Days after the Pentagon said it has accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar that will be retrofitted to become Air Force One, David Super, a professor of law and economics at Georgetown University, expressed concerns over the ethics, legality, and national security implications of the plane.
Air Force One is the call sign for any Air Force airplane that transports the president of the United States.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "I couldn't believe it from an ethics perspective, from a legality perspective, and perhaps anything more from a national security perspective, the likelihood of listing devices and whatnot in this thing being as great as it is."
Super said the plane could violate the Constitution's Emoluments Clause.
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"If it was going to the Defense Department and staying there, I would say there's a good argument it would be legal, wise, perhaps not, but legal," he said. "The problem with this is that it specifies that after President Trump leaves office, it will be transferred to his presidential library, which in effect is going to be controlled by him or his friends, and will make the plane available to him for his personal use.
"Having a luxury plane available for one's personal use is a personal value. It's a gift, and therefore the Emoluments Clause applies."
A Secret Service source told Scripps News that securing the jet will be the responsibility of the Air Force.
"They are going to make sure that there’s no counter-surveillance stuff or issues with the plane," the source said. The source added that the Air Force would be the agency "stripping" the plane, but the Secret Service will probably do its own security assessment of the plane at some point.
The Secret Service source noted that Air Force pilots would need to be trained on flying this sort of Boeing jet, as it is a different plane than those within the current presidential fleet.
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Those concerns are on top of potential conflicts of interest, Super noted.
"I don't think we want foreign governments paying us to do what they want us to do. No one gives a $400 million gift to anyone, even the Defense Department, certainly not an individual, without expecting something in return," he said. "The president makes all sorts of decisions that are of great interest to the Qatari government on foreign policy, on counterterrorism and trade and any number of things.
"We don't want our government or our president to be indebted to a foreign state. That's why we have the Emoluments Clause."
President Donald Trump previously defended the move, saying, “I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’” He stated that the plane would ultimately be transferred to his presidential library after he leaves office.
