The White House may be courting controversy with President Donald Trump’s plans to accept a luxury jumbo jet from the Qatari government, worth $400 million, as the potential new Air Force One — but his administration wouldn’t be the first to welcome lavish gifts from foreign leaders.
The practice goes all the way back to the founding of the country in 1776, with U.S. leaders receiving all manner of exotic and expensive gifts from royalty and heads of government around the world.
Abraham Lincoln politely declined a gift of a herd of elephants from the King of Siam, modern-day Thailand, in 1862. But he kept ‘a sword of costly materials and exquisite workmanship,’ a photo of the monarch’s family and two elephant tusks, according to a letter Lincoln sent to King Mongkut.
In 1880, Queen Victoria sent an intricately carved, 1,300-pound wooden desk to President Rutherford Hayes that was constructed from the oak timbers of the HMS Resolute, an Arctic exploration vessel. The desk was still in use in the Oval Office under the Biden administration but was temporarily removed in February for refinishing, according to reports.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill presented Franklin D. Roosevelt with a painting he did of Marrakech’s Koutoubia Mosque in 1943. Hollywood actor Brad Pitt bought the work in New Orleans for $2.95 million as a gift for his then-wife Angelina Jolie, who sold it a decade later for $11.5 million.
Richard Nixon accepted a gift of two giant pandas from China in 1972 following the U.S. president’s visit to the Communist country. Female panda Ling-Ling and her male mate Hsing-Hsing were given to the National Zoo in Washington D.C.
In 1997, President Clinton and wife Hillary received the gift of a handmade rug with their pictures woven into the tapestry as a gift from Azerbaijan’s leader, Heydar Aliyev. The six-by-five-foot rug was completed in a single day by a team of 12 women, according to reports.
President George W. Bush received 300 pounds of raw lamb in 2003 as a goodwill gesture from Argentina’s then-president, Nestor Kirchner. Bush also received a puppy from Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. At the end of his presidency, Bush and his wife Laura then bought the two-month-old Bulgarian Goran shepherd, named Balkan of Gorannadraganov, from the government and gave it to friends in Maryland.
His father, George H.W. Bush, was gifted a Komodo dragon by the President of Indonesia in 1990.
One of the most lavish and controversial gifts was a gold and diamond snuff box given to Benjamin Franklin after his nine-year diplomatic tour of duty in France.
In 1785, King Louis XVI gave the Founding Father the elaborate parting gift, which featured a miniature image of the monarch encrusted with 408 diamonds ‘of a beautiful water.’
It raised questions about corruption and foreign influence on officials in the newly formed American government, wrote Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout in her 2014 book, ‘Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United.’
Despite the hand-wringing over whether the gift entailed undue foreign influence, Franklin insisted upon keeping the box. The incident later contributed to the passage of the Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits federal government officials from accepting any gift from the representative of a foreign state without the consent of Congress.
Franklin’s daughter Sarah, who inherited the snuff box, gradually removed the diamonds to sell or give to family members. Hundreds of years later, only one diamond remained. The box is now at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
Federal law requires executive branch officials to disclose any gift from a foreign government valued at $480 or more. Presidents are allowed to keep gifts to display at a presidential library, but cannot keep them for personal use unless they pay the fair market price.
Trump has said that the $400 million new Air Force One plane would be donated to his presidential center or library after his term.
Despite his administration’s insistence that the jet is a gesture of goodwill to the U.S. government, ethics watchdogs have raised concerns about transparency and foreign influence, particularly given Qatar’s efforts to bolster its profile in Washington over the past decade.
More recently, Trump received a sword, dagger and three robes lined with white tiger and cheetah fur from Saudi Arabia’s royal family on his first trip abroad as president in 2017.
The president held onto the items until he left office and did not disclose them as gifts but gave them to the General Services Administration. The pieces were later seized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which found that the fur was fake, according to reports.