Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and economist Peter Schiff have sharply criticized a reported $400 million gift of a Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) 747-8 jumbo jet from Qatar’s royal family to President Donald Trump.
What Happened: Summers questioned on X why universities face scrutiny for accepting Qatari research gifts while the president can receive such a lavish present. “This feels like banana-republic-level corruption. I hope the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] remembers that payments for services rendered represent taxable income,” Summers wrote Sunday.
Summers was referring to a federal investigation into whether U.S. universities—including Georgetown, Texas A&M, Cornell, and Rutgers—properly disclosed over $250,000 in gifts or contracts from foreign sources like China, Qatar, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. The probe was reported on by The New York Times