Letters to the Editor | May 14, 2025

It’s been reported that Qatar is going to gift an ultra-luxurious jet to President Donald Trump, who plans to use it as his new Air Force One, the official presidential aircraft. After his presidency, ownership would revert to the Trump Presidential Library so he could continue to use it at will. The plane, a Boeing 747-8, has an estimated value of around $400 million. Let’s be clear that accepting that gift would eviscerate the emoluments clause, as described in the Constitution. If a country wanted to court influence with this president, who worships luxury, there may be no better — nor more effective way — to achieve this goal than what the Qataris are doing.

I don’t blame Qatar for promoting its own national interests; I blame the president, who will gladly and willfully let it do so to satisfy his own ego. The gift from Qatar may not come with visible strings attached, but make no mistake, there are. The Qatari royal family is doing this in the belief that they, or their country, will receive future considerations from the president, which makes their gift look like a very smart investment. This president can be influenced and persuaded by mere flattery; just imagine what a half-billion-dollar jet buys. This is exactly what the Qataris are banking on.

Ken Derow, Swarthmore

Doughnuts. We couldn’t accept doughnuts. I’ve worked at several firms where we were not allowed to accept any gifts from manufacturers’ representatives. No junkets to their factory, they couldn’t take us to lunch, they couldn’t even bring in doughnuts. This was about integrity: Provide information to me, but do not try to influence or bribe me. Imagine accepting a plane.

Nan Davis, Philadelphia

Instead of Air Force One, let’s rename the $400 million presidential plane from Qatar “The Dumbo Jumbo.”

Vin Morabito, Scranton

His Imperial Majesty thinks Qatar’s gift of a $400 million ultra-luxurious plane to replace Air Force One is “perfectly transparent.” Well, transparent it may be, but transparency doesn’t equate to legal, as per the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Obviously, the party in question has never had a problem ignoring any law that might constrain him. It is well known he was never satisfied with the degree of luxury available on Air Force One. This from the same man who shrugs with indifference as he tells America’s children they will have to do with fewer toys this Christmas. The ordinary Americans had better learn their place. As for older Americans, they had best be prepared to render unto Caesar in the form of their Social Security payments. As the Wicked Witch of the West opined, what a world!

Gary Kaplan, Warwick

Before he became a priest, Pope Leo XIV earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Villanova, a premier university. I find it remarkable that mathematics is a precise discipline built on logic and rigorous proofs. And yet, religion requires no proof or logic, but is grounded in simple faith. Quite a leap of faith, pardon my pun, for Pope Leo. What the world needs is for more of us, even the most logical and skeptical among us, to take that leap.

Fred Hearn, Turnersville

Buried in a corner of Page Two of the Sunday Inquirer was an article of more importance than the rehash of the MOVE situation and the background of the new pope that took up most of the front page. This article — with a blazing headline — should have been on the front and above the fold: “Pentagon: All military libraries must check books for diversity content.” In other words, if our criminal president has decided the First Amendment be damned, he and his cohorts will dictate what we can read. We cannot read about the Holocaust, abortion, sex abnormalities, and much of history. Already, 400 books have been removed from the shelves of the U.S. Naval Academy. To prove the danger of books to those in power, thousands of books were burned in Germany in 1933. It has been said that the word is more powerful than the sword. Lies and fear of the truth are a coward’s weapon. Our representatives in the House and Senate must grow spines, or we will lose this wonderful country. It is not too late.

Ralph D. Bloch, Jenkintown, ralphdbloch@yahoo.com

We would like to clear up some points made in a recent Inquirer article about antisemitism concerns regarding a talk by Syrian refugee Omar Alshogre at Harriton High School. Alshogre has his opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but a claim made by some parents that he is an antisemite is unsubstantiated, and shutting him down from speaking over his opinions sets a dangerous precedent for free speech at school. Likewise, hosting him as a guest speaker does not imply an endorsement of every opinion Alshogre has voiced, especially on topics he wasn’t invited to speak on. (He was there to discuss his experiences under the Assad regime in Syria.)

Some parents also complained about how the speech was not open to the entire community. However, it was only after many angry emails to the administration by parents that our event was restricted to only students. Parents claimed the appearance of a watermelon emoji in a post celebrating Shab-e Yalda was somehow related to the “Palestinian resistance.” The absence of the Israeli flag from our bio was also brought up, with parents claiming the Middle Eastern North African Club at Harriton excluded Israeli students, but the bio only included the backgrounds of our club’s officers, none of whom are Israeli. Despite this, the district has since directed us to either include all 17 flags of the Middle East or to remove every flag from our bio.

Additionally, an Islamophobic X account claimed that “white, Christian and Jewish children were BANNED from attending.” This is ridiculous, considering our club celebrates Middle Eastern culture — which includes a long history of Christian and Jewish cultures, and we are proud to be one of many affinity groups at Harriton. The normalization of reactionary lambasting has replaced the practice of inquiry and critical thinking that, ironically, our detractors falsely claim is not being taught in our classrooms. It’s unacceptable and needs to end.

Pedram Bigdel, Miles Baldwin, and Adam Bentefour, officers, Middle Eastern North African Club at Harriton High School

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