Donald Trump has delivered a damning three-word remark as his trip to Saudi Arabia wrapped up this week. President Trump was in the Arab kingdom this week before travelling on to Qatar, announcing a $142 billion (£107 billion) arms deal with the Saudis alongside other investments the country’s crown prince said could eventually be worth $1 trillion.
Speaking in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Trump also pledged to lift all sanctions against Syria as he met the country’s president and urged him to normalise relations with Israel. But it was aircraft that Trump was concerned with as he surveyed the assembled planes ferrying Arab leaders around the region this week. The US president complained his jet looked “much less impressive” when seen next to other aircraft while flying on Air Force One with Fox News host Sean Hannity. He added that the jet looked “much smaller” than its foreign counterparts. Trump has attracted criticism from allies and opponents in recent days after reports he planned to accept a $400 million (£300 million) aeroplane from Qatar described as a “flying palace”.
The aircraft would reportedly be transferred to Trump’s yet-to-be-built presidential library after the end of his current term, rather than retained for the next president to use, Mediaite reported.
Trump defended the plans while on Air Force One with Hannity this week, asking: “Why wouldn’t I accept a gift?”
He said: “The plane that you are on right now is almost 40 years old and when you land and you see Saudi Arabia, and you see [United Arab Emirates], and you see Qatar, and you see all these, they have these brand new Boeing 747s mostly.
“You see ours next to it. This is like a totally different plane. It’s much smaller, it’s much less impressive, as impressive as it is. We are the United States of America, I believe we should have the most impressive plane.”
“Some people say, oh, you shouldn’t accept gifts for the country. My attitude is, why wouldn’t I accept a gift? We’re giving to everybody else, why wouldn’t I accept a gift? Because it’s going to be a couple of years, I think, before the Boeings are finished and they will be wonderful when they are finished but that’s a long time.”
It was put to Trump that gifts were received and accepted usually with mutual benefits in mind.
The president replied: “We give a lot of gifts, too many gifts to be honest with you. We give gifts to defend countries that wouldn’t even exist, many countries wouldn’t even exist, all over the world, countries wouldn’t even exist. But I thought it was a beautiful gesture. Now, there are those that say we shouldn’t be accepting gifts in the Defense Department, and I would say only a stupid person would say that.
“Why wouldn’t we do that? So it helps us out because we will have a relatively new plane instead of having 40-year-old planes. These planes are 40 years old, and that’s not representative of our country.”