Foreign
Trump defends plan to use Qatari luxury jet for Air Force One
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US President Donald Trump has defended the White House plan to receive a luxury jumbo jet from Qatar to be used as America’s Air Force One presidential plane.
“They’re giving us a gift,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, adding that he would be “a stupid person” if he did not accept it.
In an earlier statement, a Qatari spokesman said it would be “inaccurate” to refer to the plane as a gift. He said the transfer of an aircraft for “temporary use” was under discussion between the two countries.
The news comes as Trump is set to visit Qatar this week as part of the first major foreign trip of his second term.
Speaking on Monday, Trump said that the US had helped the other country “a lot over the years in terms of security and safety” and that he had “a lot of respect for the leadership” of the country.
He went on to say it would be a “very nice gesture” if Qatar provided the US with a Boeing jet while his government continued to wait for two new ones to be provided directly by Boeing itself.
The potential value of the plane and its handling has raised legal and ethical questions among critics on the political left and right.
The US Constitution has a provision known as the Emoluments Clause, which restricts what gifts US presidents can accept from foreign governments. It was designed to prevent leaders from becoming beholden to foreign governments.
On social media, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff from California quoted a section of the US Constitution that said no elected official could accept “any present… of any kind whatever” from the leader of a foreign state without congressional approval.
Congressman Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate, saying the plane could “constitute the most valuable gift ever conferred on a president by a foreign government”.
But there was criticism, too, from some of Trump’s staunchest supporters.
Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro lambasted the plane deal on Monday as “skeezy”.
“Is this good for President Trump?” Shapiro said. “Is it good for his agenda? Is it good for draining the swamp and getting things done? The answer is no, it isn’t.”
Far-right influencer Laura Loomer also criticised the move. She posted to say she would “take a bullet” for the president, but that any decision to accept the jet would be “such a stain” on the administration.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sunday that “any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump’s administration is committed to full transparency”.
The White House’s current fleet includes two Boeing 747-200B planes customised for presidential use with special communications equipment and features like a state room, office and conference room. The planes have been in use since 1990 and 1991.
Qatar is said to be offering a version of a Boeing 747-8, a much newer model that ABC News reports has been upgraded into a “flying palace”.
The plane, reported to be worth about $400m (£303m), would not be ready for use right away if provided to the US, as it would need to be retrofitted and cleared by security officials, sources told CBS, the BBC’s US partner.
Boeing has already been contracted to directly provide the White House with two 747-8s directly, but Trump complained earlier this year that the firm was behind schedule.
His team negotiated to receive these during his first term in office, though Boeing has cautioned that they will not be available for two or three more years.
Qatar – a country with which Trump has long had a positive relationship – has also previously given private jets as gifts to other countries, including Turkey.
This would not be the first Trump-related deal with Qatar. Last month, his company signed a deal to build a luxury golf resort there, marking its first foreign deal since the Republican returned to office in January.
According to CBS, the plane that Trump could acquire would be donated at the end of his term to his presidential library, which is a collection of artefacts related to a US leader’s time in office.
Air Force One planes usually carry over to other administrations. According to the National Archives, only the presidential library for Ronald Reagan has an Air Force One jet.
Trump, a businessman-turned-president, has been no stranger to conflict-of-interest accusations since taking office in 2017. During his first term, critics accused him of enriching himself in a number of ways, including through his hotel in Washington DC. A lawsuit followed, but was never concluded.
Commenting on the potential transfer of the plane, David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University, told the BBC: “It certainly stinks, but formally it’s a transfer to the [US] government, not the office holder.”
However, the jet could be viewed as an illegal personal gift to Trump if he is able to use it in his private life after leaving office, Prof Super added.
As for who could protest such a move – Congress could pass a resolution denouncing it, said Prof Super, albeit this would be unlikely given the Republican dominance on Capitol Hill, and it would not stop the actual transfer.
An Ecuadorian court has sentenced former President Lenin Moreno to five years in prison for accepting bribes linked to the construction of the country’s largest hydroelectric dam.
Moreno, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, was among 20 people convicted over corruption allegations surrounding the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric project, which was built by Chinese company Sinohydro.
Prosecutors alleged that Sinohydro paid about $76 million in bribes, representing roughly four per cent of the project’s total cost.
Moreno, 73, denied the allegations and maintained that he never received money from the Chinese company.
Speaking after Friday’s ruling, the former president said he had never received “a single cent” from Sinohydro.
He also blamed the case on the administration of his former political ally and predecessor, Rafael Correa, whom he accused of seeking revenge after their political relationship deteriorated.
Moreno served as Correa’s vice-president between 2007 and 2013 before succeeding him as president. The two later fell out after Moreno moved away from Correa’s socialist policies and developed closer ties with the United States.
The court also sentenced Moreno’s wife and other relatives to nearly three years in prison for complicity in the corruption case.
Two former managers of the Coca Codo Sinclair power plant were also among those convicted.
Prosecutors had initially requested a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Moreno.
The former president has announced plans to appeal the judgment.
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for official US federal use, in the latest escalation of his dispute with Canada.
Trump signed the order on Thursday at the White House, saying the change was effective immediately. The order directs the US Department of the Interior to update federal geographic records and naming systems.
Trump justified the move by accusing Canada of treating the United States unfairly in trade and defence. He said Canada had been “ripping us off” in trade and criticised Ottawa over its relationship with Washington.
However, the order does not require Canada or international organisations to adopt the new name. Lake Ontario is shared by the US state of New York and Canada’s province of Ontario, with more than half of its surface area lying in Canadian territory.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford dismissed the move, saying the lake would continue to be known as Lake Ontario by Canadians and much of the rest of the world.
The renaming comes amid a rapidly worsening US-Canada trade dispute. Washington recently imposed 50 per cent tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, while Canada responded with retaliatory tariffs of its own on hundreds of US products.
The latest move echoes Trump’s decision in January 2025 to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” for US federal purposes.
Trump also suggested that further geographic name changes could be considered, joking that after a gulf and a lake, the United States might eventually rename the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government had not immediately issued a formal response to the latest order.
The controversy has added another symbolic dimension to already strained relations between the two neighbouring countries, as both sides continue to impose tariffs and seek to protect their economies.
The United States Secret Service has confirmed that it is aware of a video broadcast by Iranian state media that appears to threaten the life of Barron Trump, the youngest son of US President Donald Trump.
The nearly three-minute video, aired by the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), opens with an English-language graphic asking: “Where to kill Barron Trump?!” It then displays stylised graphics identifying places where Barron is publicly known to spend time, including Trump Tower in New York.
The video ends with a narrator referring to people being “eagerly waiting to receive our $10 million reward.”
Secret Service spokesperson Nate Herring confirmed that the agency was investigating the video as a potential threat against one of its protectees.
“The US Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees,” Secret Service spokesperson Nate Herring told CNN in a statement. “Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence.”
The apparent targeting of Barron marks a new development in a broader pattern of threats directed at Trump and members of his family by hard-line Iranian media.
Iranian media outlets have previously published material threatening President Trump and his family, while first lady Melania Trump has also been the subject of threats. However, the video appears to be the first public instance in which Barron has been specifically singled out.
A federal law enforcement source told CNN that the video forms part of a wider campaign of material from Iran targeting Trump and his family. According to the source, some of the videos have included details about movements and suggestions for killing members of the president’s family.
The security response to such threats involves continuously changing and adjusting protective arrangements, based on information gathered by the Secret Service, other US agencies, police authorities and foreign governments.
IRIB, which broadcast the video, is regarded as aligned with hard-liners within Iran’s regime, while its head is directly appointed by Iran’s supreme leader.
Trump has previously spoken publicly about threats against his life from Iran.
“I’m on whatever list… so far, I guess I’ve been a bit lucky, but maybe that doesn’t last very long. These are evil, sick people.”
He made the comments in July at the NATO summit in Turkey, before secretly leaving the country aboard an alternate military aircraft.
The departure was part of an elaborate security operation reportedly triggered by an Iranian threat. Trump boarded the aircraft while concealed inside a catering truck after officials determined that travelling on either version of Air Force One could expose him to an unacceptable level of danger.
A person familiar with the matter told CNN that the threat involved a shoulder-fired missile and was considered specific enough for officials to fear that Trump’s life would be at enormous risk if he travelled on either version of Air Force One.
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