Qatar’s gift to Trump reveals a loophole big enough to fly a jumbo jet through

A $400 million present shows how presidential libraries remain a blind spot in U.S. corruption law.

May 11, 2025 at 5:24 p.m. EDT Today at 5:24 p.m. EDT

By Jacob T. Levy

Jacob T. Levy is Tomlinson professor of political theory and coordinator of the Research Group on Constitutional Studies at McGill University, and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center.

During his first term, Donald Trump tested the boundaries of presidential financial ethics. Most notably, foreign governments spent lavishly at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, raising questions about the constitutional prohibition on public officials receiving “presents” or “emoluments” from any foreign state. What would that mean in the context of foreign governments and their lobbyists acting as customers of an ongoing business owned by the official? Who, if anyone, has the authority to do anything about it?

The Supreme Court declined to answer these questions, opening the door to massive new emoluments-through-business during the current Trump administration. Anyone, including foreign actors, can enrich the Trumps by buying up shares in Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social, or through any of the family’s several cryptocurrency schemes.

But even the vast sums in the crypto arrangements have some slight pretense of being business investments. The anti-corruption prohibition on simple “presents” from foreign governments — sheer tribute offered to the president personally — seems to survive. Governments may give gifts as souvenirs or tokens of courtesy, but any of greater than minimal value must be turned over to the National Archives when the president leaves office.

So how can the royal family of Qatar give Trump a $400 million “flying palace” of a plane, one that will act as Air Force One during his presidency but remain his afterward?

The answer lies in a problem that predates Trump: the presidential library system. These somewhat misnamed institutions — they do house presidential records and archives, but they also act as hagiographic museums, almost shrines — are established through private donations, from anyone, in any amount. Though Barack Obama has chosen to disclose his library’s large donors, even that is not required. Gifts may be solicited at any time, even while a president is still in office. Concerns have been raised about this system since at least the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, which received millions from foreign governments; reform efforts have stalled.

The Qatari plane will first be a time-limited gift to the Air Force. Shortly before Trump leaves office, after it has been upgraded at taxpayer expense, it will be transferred to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund, which will then keep it available for the fund’s namesake. Presto: a gift to the Air Force becomes one to the library fund becomes a lavish lifetime perk for Trump personally.

As with donations to a presidential inaugural committee, gifts to the library fund fall between the cracks of campaign finance regulations and rules governing ethics in office. As he has already done with inaugural committees, Trump seems likely to expand a known problem with library foundations into a crisis.

What is at stake is the quality of American governance. Governing according to the rule of law, general principles and impersonal procedures offers many fewer opportunities for bribes and quid pro quo favors than Trump’s preferred approach: target this law firm, exempt that preferred company from tariffs, personally decide which media company mergers to allow. Now that he has shown the path to personal enrichment in the billions of dollars from those currying his favor, lawful general governance is at risk even after he departs. As James Madison insisted, even well-intentioned public officials aren’t angels.

Future presidents might not have global real estate empires through which emoluments can flow. But those who want to tempt those presidents into corrupt misgovernment will still be able to pervert their incentives through gifts to inaugural committees and presidential libraries.

The former should be regulated like campaign finance, if not abolished altogether, with inaugurations treated as a public event. The latter are civically unhealthy anyway, encouraging a veneration of presidents over the whole constitutional order. At a minimum, fundraising for them should be impossible until after a presidential term ends. Otherwise, as Trump and Qatar have shown, they provide a loophole you could fly a plane through.