There are plenty of things wrong with the proffered gift (to Donald Trump from the rulers of Qatar) of a luxury 747 airplane to serve as a sort of interim Air Force One. For starters, Qatar has "historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level." For another, it's one of many Middle Eastern countries "that horribly abuse women and L.G.B.T. citizens" -- a country that "oppress[es] women, gays and people of different faiths." You could get even more specific: "You talk about women and women's rights? So these are people that push gays off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly. And yet you take their money." These complaints merely scratch the surface of the wrongness of accepting this plane, but they are relevant because they are all quotes from Donald Trump himself, castigating Hillary Clinton for accepting contributions to the Clinton Foundation from Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries.

That was then, this is now. Now, it is just fine with Trump that Qatar is offering him a $400 million airplane for his own use, which will be transferred to his presidential library after he leaves office. Then there would be nothing to stop him from then having his library just give him the plane as a personal gift for him to use, or he could just park it inside his library, so it could be just as big a draw as the former Air Force One in Ronald Reagan's presidential library.

The whole idea is so corrupt it boggles the mind -- which is actually kind of hard to do with Trump, since his grifting and profiting from his office was already at unprecedented levels -- so staggeringly high and breathtakingly blatant that it's hard to even keep track of it all. But a $400 million airplane is such a much more visible and obvious symbol of corruption that this time even some Republicans are pushing back on the idea.

The first and biggest stumbling block to this corrupt bargain is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, which states quite plainly (using the random capitalization Trump loves, even):

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

This leaves an obvious loophole, of course, since the Republican Congress could indeed vote to allow Trump to accept a $400 million airplane from the royalty of a foreign country. But that might be a hard sell politically, mostly because of all the other problems that would arise from such a gift.

Qatar has, in the past, been a big supporter of Hamas. They've also been a conduit for money and support to other Islamic terrorist groups around the world as well (including Al Qaeda and Hezbollah). The U.S. has a complicated relationship with the country, but they are not exactly a staunch American ally in all things -- they are not the equivalent of Saudi Arabia, to put it another way. Their human rights record, as Trump pointed out on the 2016 campaign trail (to bash Hillary Clinton), is pretty downright abysmal.

An American president accepting such a gift -- one intended to wind up in his own presidential library, no less -- would be seen by most people, both here and worldwide, as exactly what it is: a bribe. A naked and corrupt attempt to curry favor, plain (plane?) and simple. Remember when Republicans thought that was an impeachable offense? Even if the money just went to a president's relative? Do a search on "Hunter Biden" and "Burisma" to see how fervent most Republicans were on the subject, not so long ago. Some of them were rarin' to impeach Joe Biden over all of this, even though they could never come up with a shred of proof that Joe had anything to do with it or did anything in response to it or benefited from it in any way. None of that would even have to be proven if Trump accepts a "flying palace" from Qatar, because it'd be right out there in the open. The signal sent to the rest of the world would be: "Our president is for sale, and this is the going price." Which, by the way, is exactly what the emoluments clause in the Constitution aims to prevent.

Putting aside the Brobdingnagian ethical and constitutional problems for a moment, there are also enormous logistical problems as well. To be brought up to the standards necessary for a plane to fly as Air Force One, it would have to be gutted right down to the bolts and painstakingly rebuilt. As a retired Secret Service agent put it: "You'd pretty much have to take that plane down to the skeleton and put it back together. The security of every individual component is a big deal." This would be necessary to add "state-of-the-art defensive countermeasures, in-flight refueling capability and secure communications equipment." And that's before even taking into consideration securing the plane from eavesdropping. Trump "has signaled his interest in the plane since February, giving adversary intelligence services months to figure out ways to penetrate it."

"This is a flying nuclear-hardened command post," said a former U.S. official with knowledge of Air Force One operations. "It has to have secure capability at multiple levels." The Air Force would have to "rip" open and rebuild the Qatari plane -- which has been flown for years in service of other countries and individuals -- to bring it up to standard, said the official.

Counterintelligence is also a concern, said former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. "We would have to be sure nobody had planted bugs on the airplane," he said.

High-end communications have to be protected from jamming, cyberattacks and nuclear blasts, current and former officials said.

This retrofitting would likely cost hundreds of millions (if not billions) of taxpayer dollars -- negating the whole "free plane" idea. It would also likely take years -- so long that Boeing will likely have delivered the new planes which were ordered to serve as Air Force One years ago. This also negates the ostensible reason Trump wants the plane now -- to serve as a replacement until Boeing does deliver the ordered planes.

Looked at from just about any angle imaginable -- ethically, politically, militarily, logistically, time-wise, budget-wise, for what it would say about America's foreign policy being for sale, or from a national security viewpoint -- this is a monumentally bad idea. Even people like Senator Ted Cruz (normally a Trump sycophant in all things) isn't convinced, stating that the plane "poses significant espionage and surveillance problems."

Somebody needs to get the courts involved, and quickly. The plane "was moved five weeks ago to San Antonio International Airport," and "Trump had commissioned defense contractor L3Harris to retrofit the Qatari plane in Texas." Meaning taxpayer dollars could already have been committed to the project. This needs to stop. And quickly. The constitutional challenge is patently obvious and waiting to be argued before a judge. The sooner this happens, the better.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant