What Trump's 'palace in the sky' gift from Qatar reveals | Moira Donegan

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

87% : The plane, Trump says, is a gift.
54% : " What is remarkable about the plane episode is not just Trump's willingness to accept a lavish gift from another state, but the impotence and indifference of congress and the judiciary to punish him for it. To accept a gift from a foreign government is a plain violation of the unambiguous text of the constitution.
49% : This is something of a pattern for Donald Trump.
48% : Trump funneled money to his hotel business from domestic sources, too: when secret service agents were required to stay at Trump's hotels, they were charged exorbitant rates - including after he left office.
47% : In his first term, it became de rigueur for foreign dignitaries to stay at Trump's hotel on trips to Washington, a practice long perceived to be a way of currying favor with the president by spending money at his businesses.
46% : Last month, Trump announced that the biggest investors in the scheme could meet with him personally, either at one of his clubs or at the White House: a literal auction of access to the president.
43% : After all, Trump insists that the aircraft is being gifted to him, in exchange for nothing.
41% : If Trump has been selling access and influence for years - if he has not divested from his companies, which are now supposedly run by his sons, and continues to profit from the largesse of billionaires foreign and domestic, is it really a story that he still does so now?
41% : Trump has long bemoaned what he considers the inadequate state of the two aircraft that currently serve as Air Force One; he has been angling for a fancier plane since his first term.
35% : As that has been slow to materialize, the Qataris appear to have stepped in with an alternative: they will give Trump is "palace in the sky" to serve as Air Force One, and the plane would then be transferred, after he leaves office, to his presidential library.
20% : Trump will get away with his plane stunt: we know he will, because the constitutional checks on his power have been made deliberately useless.
17% : " Later, in an interview with the New York Times' Maggie Haberman, Trump elaborated further: "I mean, I could be a stupid person say, 'No, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane.'

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