Qatar is one strange country. It is our ally, and the ally of many of those who are not our allies. It provides funds to people we like, and to people we don’t like. It houses a large American military base, is the home of Aljazeera, and has attempted to mediate the Gaza War. It has a fiercely independent foreign policy.

It is also a fantastically wealthy country, but its wealth is primarily shared only with that small portion of its population are ethnically Qatari. It has so much money that it doesn’t mind giving some of it away. It has given American universities millions and millions of dollars to start Arab studies programs, which have become the target of many of those who are criticizing the universities for favoring Palestinian over Israeli rights and for focusing on Israel as a settler nation which does not deserve to exist. Qatar, as opposed to the UAE, does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

And now Qatar has given our president an airplane. A fancy airplane. A “palace in the sky”. Now, I don’t know what that means, but I know that it means that it is filled with luxurious fittings and all sorts of impressive gadgets. And this plane, it is said, will become Air Force One, which means that it will be painted on the side with “United States of America” and will replace the two aging jets which have been sharing that role and designation.  The plane is worth, I have read, about $400 million.

But don’t start to wonder whether one country can give another country an airplane. After all, we give things to other countries all the time when we give military and economic assistance, don’t we? But this is, in fact, not a gift to the United States. The deal is that Trump can use it while he is president as Air Force One and that, when his term is up, he can take it and use it as his personal airplane. At least, that’s the way it was first described.

But that seems to be clearly against both the law and the Constitution. It’s a violation of the unpronounceable “emoluments clause”. So, assuming (and this a wild assumption, I know) that the administration does not want to violate the law or the Constitution, another route will have to be taken. And whatever route is taken will have to be blessed by our independent Attorney General (strike the word “independent”) Pam Bondi.

The latest that I heard is that the plane will be given to the Defense Department (that, I guess, is legally OK) under an agreement that, at the end of the Trump presidency, the plane will be transferred by the government to the Trump Presidential Library, which in turn will either let Trump himself use the plane or, perhaps, turn title to the plane itself over to Trump. Thus, her logic goes, Qatar will not be giving the plane to the president at all, and the Constitution will be preserved.

As a legal argument, that reminds me of a case when a Mafia boss wants his goon to kill someone. He points to the target, and the goon says “Shall I kill him”? The Mafia boss does not say “yes” and does not say “no” and simply says “You think I want you to kill him”. And the target is killed. Has the boss broken the law?

Of course, the violation of the emolument clause is only part of the problem we have. The other part relates to national security. You would expect that, before a plane is used to carry the president and his party across the world, you would want to make sure it was safely made, right? And more than that, you would want to make sure that the president could communicate whatever he wants to on that plane without the possibility that it has been bugged.

Now, I do know that, with Signalgate and with Witcoff using his personal cell phone and all of that, it may be that the Trump administration does not really care about this type of security. But guess what….they should. And they should remember that Qatar is friends with some of our adversaries, and we have no control over who has worked on that plane, fitting it out for its new duties.

And, as I understand it, this is not something that can be remedied by having someone walking the plane looking for cameras in the bathrooms. Things are so sophisticated these days that the plane would have to be virtually dismantled and rebuilt to ensure that it is free of devices.

Yes, it is one more example. Add it to the list.