The White House may be courting controversy with President Donald Trump’s plans to accept a luxury jumbo jet from the Qatari government, worth $400 million, as the potential new Air Force One — but his administration wouldn’t be the first to welcome lavish gifts from foreign leaders.

The practice goes all the way back to the founding of the country in 1776, with U.S. leaders receiving all manner of exotic and expensive gifts from royalty and heads of government around the world.

Abraham Lincoln politely declined a gift of a herd of elephants from the King of Siam, modern-day Thailand, in 1862. But he kept ‘a sword of costly materials and exquisite workmanship,’ a photo of the monarch’s family and two elephant tusks, according to a letter Lincoln sent to King Mongkut.

In 1880, Queen Victoria sent an intricately carved, 1,300-pound wooden desk to President Rutherford Hayes that was constructed from the oak timbers of the HMS Resolute, an Arctic exploration vessel. The desk was still in use in the Oval Office under the Biden administration but was temporarily removed in February for refinishing, according to reports.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill presented Franklin D. Roosevelt with a painting he did of Marrakech’s Koutoubia Mosque in 1943. Hollywood actor Brad Pitt bought the work in New Orleans for $2.95 million as a gift for his then-wife Angelina Jolie, who sold it a decade later for $11.5 million.

Richard Nixon accepted a gift of two giant pandas from China in 1972 following the U.S. president’s visit to the Communist country. Female panda Ling-Ling and her male mate Hsing-Hsing were given to the National Zoo in Washington D.C.

In 1997, President Clinton and wife Hillary received the gift of a handmade rug with their pictures woven into the tapestry as a gift from Azerbaijan’s leader, Heydar Aliyev. The six-by-five-foot rug was completed in a single day by a team of 12 women, according to reports.

President George W. Bush received 300 pounds of raw lamb in 2003 as a goodwill gesture from Argentina’s then-president, Nestor Kirchner. Bush also received a puppy from Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. At the end of his presidency, Bush and his wife Laura then bought the two-month-old Bulgarian Goran shepherd, named Balkan of Gorannadraganov, from the government and gave it to friends in Maryland.

His father, George H.W. Bush, was gifted a Komodo dragon by the President of Indonesia in 1990.

One of the most lavish and controversial gifts was a gold and diamond snuff box given to Benjamin Franklin after his nine-year diplomatic tour of duty in France.

In 1785, King Louis XVI gave the Founding Father the elaborate parting gift, which featured a miniature image of the monarch encrusted with 408 diamonds ‘of a beautiful water.’

It raised questions about corruption and foreign influence on officials in the newly formed American government, wrote Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout in her 2014 book, ‘Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United.’

Despite the hand-wringing over whether the gift entailed undue foreign influence, Franklin insisted upon keeping the box. The incident later contributed to the passage of the Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits federal government officials from accepting any gift from the representative of a foreign state without the consent of Congress.

Franklin’s daughter Sarah, who inherited the snuff box, gradually removed the diamonds to sell or give to family members. Hundreds of years later, only one diamond remained. The box is now at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.

Federal law requires executive branch officials to disclose any gift from a foreign government valued at $480 or more. Presidents are allowed to keep gifts to display at a presidential library, but cannot keep them for personal use unless they pay the fair market price.

Trump has said that the $400 million new Air Force One plane would be donated to his presidential center or library after his term.

Despite his administration’s insistence that the jet is a gesture of goodwill to the U.S. government, ethics watchdogs have raised concerns about transparency and foreign influence, particularly given Qatar’s efforts to bolster its profile in Washington over the past decade.

More recently, Trump received a sword, dagger and three robes lined with white tiger and cheetah fur from Saudi Arabia’s royal family on his first trip abroad as president in 2017.

The president held onto the items until he left office and did not disclose them as gifts but gave them to the General Services Administration. The pieces were later seized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which found that the fur was fake, according to reports.

A small nodule was found in the prostate of former President Joe Biden during a recent physical exam, according to media reports. 

The discovery ‘necessitated further evaluation,’ the Associated Press reported Tuesday, citing a spokesperson. 

A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond Tuesday to multiple requests for comment from Fox News Digital. 

During his presidency, Biden had a ‘cancerous’ skin lesion removed from his chest, according to the White House.  

Former White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in February 2023 that skin tissue was removed during a health assessment Biden received and was sent for a biopsy, which revealed it was cancerous.   

‘As expected, the biopsy confirmed that the small lesion was basal cell carcinoma. All cancerous tissue was successfully removed. The area around the biopsy site was treated presumptively with electrodessication and curettage at the time of biopsy. No further treatment is required,’ Biden’s doctor wrote in a memo. 

‘The site of the biopsy has healed nicely and the President will continue dermatologic surveillance as part of his ongoing comprehensive healthcare,’ O’Connor also wrote. 

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report. 

American and Israeli officials believe the release of Edan Alexander, 21, presents a ‘window of opportunity’ to free the remaining 58 hostages still held by Hamas after 585 days since their capture on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and hostage envoy Adam Boehler will travel from Israel to Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday for further negotiations for the release of not only the 24 hostages still believed to be alive, but also the bodies of at least 34 individuals who have been held by the terrorist group including four Americans: Itay Chen, Omer Neutra, and Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai.

In a nearly two-hour meeting with Witkoff, Boehler and the Hostages Families Forum, both officials emphasized that they remain committed to returning all hostages and confirmed they would not be traveling to Doha if they did not believe there was a real chance in advancing negotiations. 

While Alexander’s return has been championed as a major success story, and both President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were reported to have spoken with the Israeli American from a hospital in Tel Aviv, immense concern remains over the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.

Though Israel ceased its military operations in the Gaza Strip to secure the safe transport of Alexander on Monday, it has not committed to any continued cessation of strikes. 

In Witkoff’s comments to the families of the hostages, he said President Trump would not ‘tolerate anything other than everybody coming home, and he will be relentless in that pursuit.’ He continued, ‘you saw what happened with the Houthis. You saw what happened when people don’t do well with the United States, we don’t do so well with them. So it’s a message of do what we ask you to do. And you know then things will be better.’

Israeli reports also suggested the envoy may be feeling frustrated with his Israeli counterparts.

‘We want to bring the hostages home, but Israel is not willing to end the war. Israel is prolonging it despite the fact that we don’t see where else we can go and that an agreement must be reached,’ Witkoff reportedly said during the meeting with the hostage families.

‘There is currently a window of opportunity that we hope Israel and all the mediators will take advantage of,’ he was reported to have added. ‘We are putting pressure on all the mediators and doing everything we can to bring the hostages home.’

The comments reportedly come following reports that Trump has also grown increasingly frustrated with his Israeli counterpart. 

Israel said last week that Trump’s visit to the Middle East would be ‘the window of opportunity’ to secure a ceasefire otherwise it would continue with its newly announced plans to capture all of Gaza, despite immense international pushback and concerns over human rights abuses and violations of U.N.-established borders. 

The comments came after Netanyahu prompted immense outcry after he said his number one priority was destroying Hamas, not returning the hostages, despite opposition to the plan by the majority of Israelis. 

On Monday, Netanyahu reiterated his intent to ‘destroy’ Hamas while speaking with injured reservists and confirmed that even if Hamas agrees to return the hostages, Israel will continue with its military operations. 

‘In the coming days, we are going in with full force to complete the operation. Completing the operation means defeating Hamas. It means destroying Hamas,’ he said. 

‘It’s possible that Hamas will say, ‘Time out — we want to release ten more [hostages].’ Fine, bring them. We’ll take them, and then we’ll go in. But there will not be a situation in which we stop the war. There may be a temporary ceasefire, but we’re going all the way,’ he confirmed.

Witkoff’s team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions. 

Former President Joe Biden’s aides privately discussed the possibility of the president needing to use a wheelchair if he were re-elected in the 2024 race, as his physical deterioration spiraled in 2023 and 2024, a new book claims. 

‘Biden’s physical deterioration — most apparent in his halting walk — had become so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn’t do so until after the election,’ an upcoming book called ‘Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again’ states. 

CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson authored the upcoming book, which is set to be released Tuesday and is just the latest in a series of recent political books detailing the unprecedented 2024 presidential election, where calls mounted for Biden’s exit due to concerns over his mental acuity and age. 

‘Given Biden’s age, (his physician Kevin O’Connor) also privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery,’ the authors wrote. 

Concerns over Biden’s physical agility worsened in June 2023, when the president tripped over a sandbag at the Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony, Axios reported. 

‘He’s fine. There was a sandbag on stage while he was shaking hands,’ a White House official posted to X at the time, while critics of the president denounced the fall as ‘sad’ and an example of ‘elder abuse’ of the president. 

Biden’s aides worked to create shorter walking paths for the president — and insisted that he use handrails while walking on staircases and wear sneakers — and took more care in guiding him while in public as the 2024 campaign cycle heated up, Axios reported of the book. 

Biden’s mental acuity had been under conservatives’ microscope since before the 2020 election, with concerns heightening in February 2024 when special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents as vice president, announced he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’ 

Concern over his mental acuity hit a fever pitch in June 2024, when Biden took the debate stage to face off against then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Biden’s debate performance was seen as a failure, with traditional allies soon joining conservatives in their concern over the president’s health in the context of encouraging Biden to pass the mantle to a younger generation of U.S. leaders. 

Biden dropped out at the end of July 2024, giving his successor for the nomination, former Vice President Kamala Harris, just over 100 days to rally support. Trump and Vice President JD Vance secured the election win after locking down support in the top seven battleground states. 

A Biden spokesperson told Axios when asked about the claims in the upcoming book that, ‘Yes, there were physical changes as he got older, but evidence of aging is not evidence of mental incapacity.’

The spokesperson defended that Biden’s ‘stiffened gait’ seen while he was in office was due ‘in part, by wear and tear to his spine — but that no special treatment was necessary and that it had not worsened.’

‘We are still waiting for someone, anyone, to point out where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or make a presidential address where he was unable to do his job because of mental decline. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite — he was a very effective president,’ the unidentified spokesperson told Fox Digital. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office Tuesday morning for additional comment on the matter but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx., has introduced a proposal for the federal government to provide $1,000 in an account for every American child.

The ‘Invest America Act’ would create ‘a private tax-advantaged account with a $1,000 seed investment from the federal government for every American child at birth,’ according to a press release. 

People would also be able to add funds to the account.

‘Each Invest America account will be open to contributions from individuals, family members, friends, and businesses up to $5,000 annually,’ the release states. ‘The account investments can be placed in a broad, low-cost fund that tracks the S&P 500, growing tax-deferred until the individual reaches age 18. Distributions after age 18 would be taxed at the capital gains rate.’

Cruz’s proposal comes as the U.S. national debt is more than $36.2 trillion, and is likely to keep climbing.

‘Every child in America will have private investment accounts that will compound over their lives, enhancing the prosperity and economic participation of the vast majority of Americans. When people years from now talk about the changes created by Republican efforts this Congress, this is one of the landmark achievements they will talk about,’ Cruz said, according to the press release.

The House Ways and Means Committee is slated to markup ‘The One, Big, Beautiful Bill’ on Tuesday. The legislation under consideration includes a pilot program for providing $1,000 in ‘MAGA accounts’ for children born during a certain period of time. 

‘What is powerful is enabling every child in America to have an investment account and a stake in the American free enterprise system,’ Cruz noted, according to Semafor. 

House Republicans are moving to put stricter work requirements on food stamps in a bid to cut government waste and find taxpayer savings for President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’

Cobbling the vast piece of legislation together takes coordination by 11 different House committees, each working on a portion of it under their panel’s jurisdiction.

The portion released on Monday night would raise the upper age limit for work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), from certain able-bodied adults up to age 54 to those up to age 64.

Whereas the current rules exempt people with dependents under age 18, the new provision would now include SNAP recipients with children above age 7 who otherwise qualify for work requirements.

The House Agriculture Committee, which oversees federal food programs in addition to America’s farmers, was tasked with finding $230 billion in spending cuts out of a sum total of $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion dollars – cuts that conservatives had demanded to offset the cost of Trump’s other priorities.

‘For far too long, the SNAP program has drifted from a bridge to support American households in need to a permanent destination riddled with bureaucratic inefficiencies, misplaced initiatives, and limited accountability,’ Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., said in a statement.

‘This portion of the One Big, Beautiful Bill restores the program’s original intent, offering a temporary helping hand while encouraging work, cracking down on loopholes exploited by states, and protecting taxpayer dollars while supporting the hardworking men and women of American agriculture.’ 

The legislation also would eventually have the states cover some SNAP costs. Currently, the federal government fully covers SNAP costs for all 50 states and half the states’ administrative costs to run it.

The new bill would impose a 5% baseline benefit cost share for all states, beginning in 2028. States with higher rates of erroneous payments would pay more as well.

It would also lower the ‘match rate’ for which the government reimburses states for those administrative costs, from 50% to 25%.

Fox News Digital first reported in late February that Republicans were looking to heighten work requirements for food stamps via reconciliation, when similar legislation was introduced by Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., a member of the Agriculture panel.

House and Senate Republicans are working on advancing Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process this year. 

Reconciliation allows the party controlling both houses of Congress and the White House to move a massive piece of legislation, provided it addresses budgetary matters like spending, taxes or the national debt.

It makes that possible by lowering the Senate’s passage threshold from 60 votes to 51, lining up with the House’s own simple majority threshold – meaning Democrats are completely sidelined in the process.

Trump wanted Republicans to craft a bill advancing his priorities on the border, immigration, taxes, energy, defense and raising the debt limit.

The House Agriculture Committee, along with two other top committees, are advancing their own portions of the bill on Tuesday.

When that is done, all 11 House committees that have crafted individual reconciliation pieces will put them together into a massive bill, identical versions of which must pass the House and Senate before reaching Trump’s desk.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he wants the House to finish its portion of the effort by Memorial Day.