Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defends Trump’s Qatari luxury jet gift, compares it to Statue of Liberty

WASHINGTON, DC:  Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent has come out to defend his boss Donald Trump’s decision to accept a $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 as a “gift” from Qatar's royal family.

The 62-year-old bizarrely compared the Qatari gift to the Statue of Liberty, which France gifted to the US, as he tackled Jake Tapper’s questions on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’.

Bessent’s defense came as ethics watchdogs and legal experts sounded the alarm over the luxurious gift, saying it could be a blatant violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause.

The gift has also turned Trump’s own MAGA faithful against him, with many calling it a "bribe."

Scott Bessent compares Qatari jet gift to the Statue of Liberty and the Resolute Desk

Scott Bessent vehemently defended Donald Trump for accepting the jet from Qatar, as Jake Tapper suggested, “Even if Qatar isn’t asking for anything in return now for the jet, I mean, that’s a bill that could come due. Nobody… just gives a $400 million jet just to be nice.”

In response, the former hedge fund manager said, “Well, I don’t know, Jake. The French gave us the Statue of Liberty. The British gave us the Resolute Desk. I’m not sure they asked for anything in advance.”

“The more important airplane deal was, there’s $100 billion of orders from Qatari airlines to Boeing… So I think that that plane deal is much more important than this other one,” he further said, according to Rolling Stone.

In response, Tapper noted that the statue was not intended for a president's personal use, unlike the Qatari jet, which would be transferred to Trump's presidential library when he leaves office, as per The Independent.

“I think this plane would be a gift to the American government,” Bessent stated. 

Notably, Bessent’s argument echoes Trump’s very own comparisons of the new Qatari stand-in for the US’s aging Air Force One to the Statue of Liberty, which Congress authorized in 1877.

Earlier this month, the president reposted a photoshopped picture of Lady Liberty with a sign around her neck that said, "Gift from a foreign nation.”

Trump later shared another post by Roberta Abbey Wallace, which read, "To everyone complaining about this gift: How about the Resolute Desk aka Hayes Desk that was gifted to President Hayes from Queen Victoria in 1880? What about the Statue of Liberty which was gifted from France in 1886?”

In 1880, Queen Victoria gave then-President Rutherford B Hayes the Resolute Desk, one of the pieces of furniture that presidents can use in the Oval Office.

It has remained at the White House and been used by most presidents since its arrival, including during Trump’s previous administration and current one.

Donald Trump called Democrats 'world-class losers' for questioning his move to accept Qatari jet gift

Earlier in May, Donald Trump clapped back at his MAGA loyalists and Democrats who criticized his decision to accept the $400 million gift from Qatar.

In a Truth Social post, he wrote, “So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA.”

Trump himself has apparently made a promise to “protect” Qatar, which has a history of using its vast wealth.

“We have never had a relationship with Qatar as strong as it is now,” the 78-year-old said during his recent Middle East trip. “We are going to protect you.”

“We are going to protect this country. It’s a very special place, with a special royal family. … They are great people and they are going to be protected by the United States of America,” he added.