No, Qatar’s royal family gifting a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet known as a “flying palace” to the government that will reportedly then go to Donald Trump’s presidential library is not the same as France giving the Statue of Liberty to the American people. But that is what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to claim on Sunday.

Contrary to the White House narrative, Qatar did not spontaneously decide to give their pal Trump a luxury jet.

Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent defended the Trump administration’s decision to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari government, comparing it to the French gift of the Statue of Liberty in 1886 in a CNN interview Sunday morning.