Karen DeYoung, Natalie Allison and Mariana Alfaro at WP:
Qatar is discussing donating an aircraft to the U.S. government for President Donald Trump to use temporarily, but no final agreement has been reached, according to Qatar’s media attaché to the United States. The subject remains in talks between lawyers at the U.S. Defense Department and Qatar’s Defense Ministry.
While the deal is not final, ethics experts are raising concerns about the possible donation from a foreign government, which they say would be unconstitutional, violating the emoluments clause, which forbids U.S. officials from accepting gifts or other things of value from foreign officials without congressional approval.
Trump appeared to confirm the discussions in a social media post Sunday evening, criticizing those who say that Washington should pay for the plane. He said the Pentagon would be receiving the 747 aircraft free to use temporarily as an Air Force One plane.
Eric Lipton and David Yaffe-Bellany at NYT:
The sale of face-to-face access to President Trump using the Trump family’s own cryptocurrency has done more than benefit him financially, though it has certainly done that.
Mr. Trump announced last month that leading buyers of a digital coin his family is marketing would be rewarded with a private dinner with him at one of his golf courses and that the very top bidders would win a tour of the White House.
The auction, which ends Monday, has set off a spectacle that has drawn bipartisan criticism, triggered a suspicious trading pattern, and left a sitting United States president wide open to attempts to corruptly influence him.
Since the announcement, crypto investors around the world have raced to expand their holdings of $TRUMP — a digital currency called a memecoin, which is typically treated more as a novelty investment than an actual currency.
Certain buyers, in interviews and statements, have said they bought the coins or entered the dinner contest with the intention of securing an action by Mr. Trump to affect United States policy.
...
The contest has presented a straightforward opportunity for foreign-based investors to interact with the president. Under federal law, noncitizens are barred from donating to political campaigns. But nothing stops them from buying a $TRUMP memecoin.
In Mexico, Javier Selgas, the chief executive of a transportation logistics company, announced last month that he intended to buy $20 million worth of $TRUMP tokens to try to convince Mr. Trump to lower tariffs targeting Mexico, which would benefit his company. (After the announcement drew international attention, a spokesman said the firm “currently does not have plans” to send a representative to Mr. Trump’s dinner.)
