HALIFAX—United States President Donald Trump has just tossed a $400-million jumbo jet into the swamp he was supposed to drain.

The plane, as everyone knows, was a gift from the royal family of Qatar to Trump, even though he insists it was a gift to the Pentagon. What people don’t know—and probably never will—is what the other half of the exchange might have been.  

In what must be the death march of disingenuousness, Qatar’s foreign minister said his country was not seeking influence in lavishing the jet on Trump. The gift, he claimed, was given “out of love.” The question is, love of what?

Consider how Canada deals with this issue. Could Prime Minister Mark Carney come back from a government tour of foreign countries with a personal gift of $400-million and get to keep it?  

The answer is a resounding “No.” Under Canada’s Conflict of Interest Act, public officer holders in this country are held to a rigorous standard.  

When it comes to gifts or advantages, our politicians can’t accept money, consumer goods, including books or wine, or property such as vehicles, houses, or cottages. They can’t accept travel or accommodation costs paid for by another individual or organization. How tight does it get? They even have to pay the full price for a haircut.  

There are other prohibitions, but in a nutshell, this is the gift rule for Canadian politicians and their families.  Both are prohibited from receiving gifts or advantages that could “reasonably” be seen as an attempt to influence an official’s power, duty, or function. “Simply put, you and your family members cannot receive a gift if it looked like the donor wanted to affect how you do your jobs.”

It is important to note that the “acceptability test” under the legislation is all about the appearance of a conflict. The question is not whether the person or organization who gave the gift either intended to buy influence or actually bought it.

There are three exceptions to the gift rule. Gifts, or other advantages that are permitted under the Canada Elections act; gifts from a friend or relative; and gifts received as a courtesy, protocol, or according to customary standards. 

Our politicians can accept trinkets, pins, pens, key chains and T-shirts. And they can have their entrance fee paid to a conference where they are a keynote speaker. We are talking low-value gifts here, items worth less than $40 before taxes and shipping. The value of these gifts cannot exceed $200 per gift. In other words, no jumbo jets.

The rules are tight for a very practical reason: safeguarding the integrity of governance. In order to have confidence in the system, the public has to know that public officials are not monetizing their powers, or mixing their public and private business in a self-interested way.  

As quaint as it may sound, Canadians place a very high priority on character in their politicians. That is what protects the system—as imperfect as it is—from the ethical meltdown that allows a U.S. president to accept a $400-million jet given to him by a foreign nation. Neither Carney, nor any other Canadian leader of any party, would ever entertain accepting such an obvious bribe.  

The fact is that Trump has no right to accept a jumbo jet, or a bag of cash, from any foreign country.  According to Article 1, Sec. 9, and Clause 8 of the Foreign Emoluments Clause, no American president can accept gifts or money without the express approval of Congress. So far, he doesn’t have that.

Trump has not yet shot someone on Fifth Avenue, as he once bragged he could do, without consequences. But he has gotten away metaphorically with murder when it comes to systematically dismantling the separation of powers amongst three co-equal branches of government. He has expanded executive powers all the way to tyranny.

Trump has ignored court orders and threatened to fire judges who rule against him. He has illegally deported people to foreign prisons without due process. He has referred specific Americans to the Department of Justice for investigation. He has threatened to annex Canada and seize Greenland by force in the name of national security. And he says he doesn’t know if he has to uphold the Constitution. He didn’t seem to have that problem when he was sworn in.

In the process of shattering all norms, Trump has reduced the Republican Party to a quivering and pathetic collection of sycophants. They are so afraid of Trump, they have forgotten their duty to uphold the Constitution that he is hell-bent on dismantling.  

The jumbo joke Trump is playing on the American people over his jet-get is the latest example of his relentless iconoclasm. 

Even though accepting the jet is clearly unconstitutional, as Representative Jamie Raskin and Senator Richard Blumenthal have pointed out, Trump got the gift legally approved by his attorney general. To her everlasting shame, Pam Bondi has chosen her boss over her country and the Constitution.

If this deal sticks, if Trump gets to keep his jumbo jet and turn it into Air Force One, U.S. politics will become a foot-race between farce and tragedy.  

Consider the financial implications which are farcical. A new Air Force One is already under construction. The U.S. Air Force and Boeing are planning to have it ready by 2027. What happens to the millions of dollars that have gone into that project?

And if Trump decides to use the luxury jet the Qataris put into his loot bag as the new Air Force One, how many millions of dollars will have to be spent refitting to it to bring it up to standard?  

Can that work even be completed while Trump is still in office? And since Trump gets to keep the plane after he leaves the White House, will all that special equipment have to be stripped out at further expense to American taxpayers?  

That is the farce. Here is the potential tragedy. If Congress or the courts bend the knee to Trump’s continuing unconstitutional rampage, there will only be one group that can save the Republic: the American people. Having elected him twice, no one can be sure what they will do.

But this much is clear. They will have to decide if they want to trade democracy for kleptocracy.  

They will have to decide if they will permit a preposterously greedy individual to monetize the highest office in the land. 

Do they want a huckster of meme coins, crypto-currency, Tesla cars, and bibles to run the country? Do they approve of the Trump family making millions on golf course and hotels in the very region of the world that gifted Trump his own jet? Or will they decide it is past time to make character a prerequisite of occupying the Oval Office.

Without character, there is only chaos.

Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist.

The Hill Times

 

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