Here’s the text of the Emoluments Clause: 

“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.“ 

⁃ US Constitution, Article 1, Section 9. 

As they say in Latin, “Ubi hoc est, ibi illud est,” meaning, “Where there’s a this there’s a that.”

This is more conventionally phrased, “Quid pro quo,” meaning “What for what.”

Because gifts, emoluments, offices and titles confer obligations of the recipient to the giver. Because emoluments are bribes.

Suppose an Ambassador is having dinner with a foreign dignitary, and he or she chokes, and the dignitary jumps up, performs the Heimlich Maneuver, and saves the Ambassador’s life; that’s legal. It doesn’t need to be approved by an act of Congress. 

But suppose you are negotiating a peace treaty or a cease fire between two (2) warring parties, India and Pakistan, Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas / Hezbollah / Iran, for example, and one of the parties gives you a $100,000, or a luxury car. You are no longer an honest broker or a disinterested third party. Or suppose you are negotiating a trade deal or another agreement between your country and another country and you are offered that $100,000 or luxury car. Your integrity has been compromised; you have been bribed. 

Purchases of cryptocurrency tokens worth Hundreds, Millions, or Billions of dollars, with transaction fees up up to 75% – which therefore confer up to 75% of those Hundreds, Millions, or Billions, are also clear violations of Article 1, Section 9. 

So is acceptance of a gift of a Boeing 747-8 worth approximately $400 Million, as the Emir of Qatar has offered, and as the President has indicated his willingness to eagerly accept.

The jet is also presented as the next Air Force One, ownership of which, upon the current President’s leaving office, would be conveyed to his personal estate. (I guess the good news is that he is planning leaving office. Or at least contemplating it.)

Parenthetically, Qatar has the interesting distinction of being home to Al Udeid Air Force base, home to the U.S. Combined Air Operations Center, U.S. Air Forces Central Command. Simultaneously Qatar is home to the political leadership of Hamas and is allied to China and Iran.

In addition to being a $400 Million emolument, the gift raises some security concerns. 

While customized for the Qatari Emir, it’s a Boeing 747-8, so Boeing engineers should know every system in the aircraft. But could Qatari engineers or others embed tracking devices so they know the plane’s location, altitude, velocity and trajectory? Of course they could. 

Could those Qatari engineers or others embed monitoring systems so they are aware of every conversation within and all communications to and from the aircraft? Well, duh. That would be child’s play for “children” like Ed Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Elon’s Doge Bros, and Putin’s Hackers. Why waste time hacking Signal chats or lurking in the background when you can bug the big kahuna. (Of course you could also simply buy a membership in his favorite country club, or buy a few $million or $billion of his meme coin then call him up and invite yourself to a private dinner where access and influence is on the menu.) 

Could malicious actors sabotage the aircraft in order to damage navigation systems, defense systems, the landing gear, or render the plane structurally or mechanically unsound? (And Qatar is also allied to China, Iran, and Hamas.)

The sky’s the limit.