Donald Trump isn’t the first president to be offered a free luxury jet worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the ruling family of Qatar. In 2018, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani gifted Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with a $500 million Boeing 747-8i, the same model on offer to Trump. The gift—which at the time was described as the “largest and most expensive private jet in the world”—came after Turkey had backed Qatar in a year-long stand-off with other Arab states. Since taking office in 2014, Erdoğan—who was previously Turkey’s prime minister—has taken control of the judiciary, police and military; dismantled institutional checks and balances; cracked down on dissent; and jailed his political opponents, according to the BBC. While Turkey is technically a democratic, secular and social state, the government has been described as “competitive authoritarian,” meaning it holds elections but they’re rigged in favor of Erdoğan’s conservative Justice and Development Party. According to Freedom House, the country is careening toward a full-on dictatorship after the March arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul and Erdoğan’s most influential political rival. Erdoğan—it seems—also shares a taste for expensive airplanes with the U.S. president.
The post Guess Which Other World Leader Said ‘Yes’ to Free Qatari Jet? appeared first on The Daily Beast