Trump Issues Wild Threat to ABC for Reporting on His Qatar Private Jet

Donald Trump is threatening to sue American businesses for discussing the apparently cozy relationship he has with Qatari leadership.

In a post on Truth Social Sunday, the president publicly threatened to sue ABC News for reporting on the super luxury jumbo jet he received as a gift from Qatar.

“Why doesn’t Chairman Bob Iger do something about ABC Fake News, especially since I just won $16,000,000 based on the Fake and Defamatory reporting of Liddle George Slopadopolus,” Trump wrote, referring to a December arrangement in which ABC agreed to donate $15 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle his defamation lawsuit against the anchor.

“He was given warnings, but just couldn’t be restrained by ‘management.’ Now I see they are at it again, and I again give these SleazeBags fair warning!” he said.

The jet was widely interpreted as a foreign bribe, including by longtime supporters of the president’s agenda such as far-right influencers Ben Shapiro and Laura Loomer. It was one of the most lavish gifts ever bestowed to a U.S. president.

“The wonderful country of Qatar, after agreeing to invest more than 1.4 Trillion Dollars in the United States of America, deserves much better than Misleading (Fake!) News. Everyone, including their lawyers, has been told that ABC must not say that Qatar is giving ME a FREE Boeing 747 Airplane, because they are not,” the president continued online, apparently incensed that a news organization was doing its job.

“Instead, and as Fake News ABC fully knows and understands, this highly respected country is donating the plane to the United States Air Force/ Defense Department, AND NOT TO ME,” he posted. “By so doing, they are saving our country, and the American Taxpayer, hundreds of millions of dollars. ABC Fake News is one of the WORST.”

Claiming that the plane is going towards the Defense Department is a convenient workaround that would allow Trump to ethically accept the pricy present, since it is obviously illegal for a president (or any U.S. public office holder) to accept gifts “of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State,” per the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause.

Except that the plane is not actually being donated to the American people. Instead, Trump is opting to use the luxurious aircraft as his new Air Force One until “shortly before he leaves office,” at which point he will transfer ownership of the plane to his presidential library foundation, sources with knowledge of the arrangement told ABC News.

Richard Briffault, a Columbia Law School professor, told NPR News Trump’s decision to accept the jumbo jet is a “pretty textbook case” of violating the Emoluments Clause, clarifying that if Trump hands the jet over to his library after leaving office, then it’s “not really a gift to the United States at all.”

“[Gifts are] designed to create good feelings for the recipient and to get some kind of reciprocity,” Briffault told NPR. “But the thing that [Trump] can give, of course, is public policy—weapons deals or whatever. And then, of course, it’s an incentive to other countries to give similar gifts as another way of influencing presidential decision-making.”