Over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced that the nation of Qatar would give him a new luxury Air Force One and that the plane would be donated to his presidential library after his term in office — meaning he can keep using it.
Discussing the matter on Monday, Sunny Hostin, co-host of "The View" and former federal prosecutor, recalled working for the government and being told that taking such gifts was unacceptable.
Whoopi Goldberg said that over the years, when she was invited to the White House for birthday events, she would bring the president a gift, but was ultimately told that the president couldn't accept it if it was over $19.99.
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"So this is completely illegal," said Hostin. "Unprecedented."
But it was Alyssa Farah Griffin who recalled her time working for the Pentagon and the White House.
"Two things stood out to me. Yes, it's a violation of ethics rules," she began.
Goldberg interrupted to ask, "Did you say ethics? Let's take a laugh at that."
"You don't want government officials to be able to be bribed or feel indebted to people," Griffin continued. "It's also a huge national security risk. The Qatari government will know all the ins and outs, security protocols, technology for the plane that houses the U.S. president.
"And I would remind people, the Qataris are not our friends. They shelter Hamas terrorists. They protect their money. They allow them to carry out their terrorist activities. So, that we would kind of be getting in bed with them in this way — just in so many ways scares me."
Sara Haines agreed, saying that beyond the ethics and constitutional questions, "the fact that Qatar finances a lot of these — we have an active war going on right now in the Middle East. In fact, Alyssa and I wear these pins because of the hostages who have not been returned by Hamas. And now, even only half of the 58 are alive. It's just their bodies returned to their families. We are actively engaging in that right now and a country who helps fund a lot of these terrorist organizations is giving you a plane. And I was always taught if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. I don't think you get a $400 million gift without expectations."
Griffin recalled that while working for the government, she was often reminded, "if we were meeting with other heads of state we were actually told don't even take a pen from them because it likely has surveillance capabilities in it. So, I bet his national security has to be like, this does not seem like a good idea."
"We don't seem to have any national security team," Goldberg quipped, mocking the recent purge of top national security council leaders.
