Sean Hannity appeared to spoon-feed President Donald Trump additional excuses for his wanting to accept Qatar’s free Air Force One replacement in a conversation that aired Tuesday. (Watch the video below.)
Aboard the current Air Force One, the Fox News host doled out the talking points as he and the president discussed the problematic deal, which would see the $400 million jumbo jet turned over to the future Trump library afterward. The arrangement has been questioned even by Republicans. But Trump and the host dug in.
Hannity set up the segment by accusing people on the left of harping on the issue and knowing nothing about U.S.-Qatar relations. Despite Trump’s “slew of recent accomplishments, groundbreaking diplomacy, the legacy state-run media mob still managed to find their new obsession,” Hannity said.
Fast-forward to their conversation. Trump dwelled on a yet-to-be-fulfilled Air Force One deal with Boeing. He complained that the current presidential plane is less impressive and much smaller than the aircraft for ruling leaders from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
“Some people say, oh, you shouldn’t accept gifts for the country,” Trump said. “My attitude is, why wouldn’t I accept a gift? We’re giving to everybody else, why wouldn’t I accept a gift? Because it’s going to be a couple of years, I think, before the Boeings are finished — and they will be wonderful when they’re finished — but that’s a long time.”
“Isn’t it part of your argument how the United States has paid untold billions and trillions of dollars securing every aspect of the world?” Hannity asked.
“I said, we’ve secured that part of the world for many years,” Trump replied. “So if somebody makes a gift, I’m not getting — I get nothing, I get to fly it like any other president would.”
“So the U.S. has kind of given them gifts. It’s called national defense and security,” Hannity said, failing to note in the moment that the plane would then belong to the Trump library.
“We give a lot of gifts. We give too many gifts to be honest with you,” Trump answered. “We give gifts to defend countries that wouldn’t even exist, many countries wouldn’t even exist. All over the world, countries wouldn’t even exist. But I thought it was a beautiful gesture. Now, there are those that say we shouldn’t be accepting gifts in the Defense Department, and I would say only a stupid person would say that. Why wouldn’t we do that? And so it helps us out because we will have a relatively new plane instead of having 40-year-old planes. These planes are 40 years old, and that’s not representative of our country.”