Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the Trump administration’s decision to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari government, comparing it to the French gift of the Statue of Liberty in 1886 in a CNN interview Sunday morning.
“The French gave us the Statue of Liberty; the British gave us the Resolute Desk,” Bessent told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I’m not sure they asked for anything in advance.”
Bessent pivoted to what he called the “more important airplane deal” that came of President Trump’s trip to the Middle East this week — the announcement that Qatar Airways will purchase 160 jets from Boeing.
“This is the biggest order in the company’s history, so, you know, I think that that plane deal is much more important than this other one,” he said.
Trump earlier this week seemingly endorsed comparisons of the new Qatari stand-in for the U.S.’s aging Air Force One fleet to the Statue of Liberty, which Congress authorized in 1877 — nearly a decade before then-President Grover Cleveland accepted it upon its arrival. He reposted several messages on his Truth Social website highlighting past gifts from foreign countries.
“Be truthful, it is ONLY because it is President Donald J. Trump that you are spewing your idiocy!” one user wrote in a post Trump shared. “The plane is NOT President Trumps!!! It is a gift to AMERICA and the DOD 🇺🇸 Get over it!”
The Resolute Desk, one of the furnishings available to presidents for use in the Oval Office, was gifted to then-President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880. 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.
Trump has faced pushback from Republicans and Democrats over the security and ethical concerns about the plane arrangement, though, under which the Defense Department was given the pricy present to be used as the president’s official aircraft until two Boeing jets are completed. It will be decommissioned to Trump’s future presidential library after Trump leaves office.
Trump recently compared the deal to the arrangement made by former President Ronald Reagan whose most-used Air Force One plane was decommissioned to the Reagan Foundation in 2001, 12 years after he left office. It is now on display at the Reagan library in California.
“This goes to the United States Air Force for whoever is president, and at some point, it’ll be like Ronald Reagan. It’ll be decommissioned, because they won’t want it,” Trump told Fox News anchor Bret Baier in an interview earlier this week.
