The British Prime Minister gave him a photograph in return

Biden gifts Johnson a bike worth $6000

  • The American and British leaders and their wives on the Cornwall coast.

    AFP

  • bike gift.

    From the source

picture

It was reported that US President Joe Biden gave British Prime Minister Boris Johnson a custom-made bike worth $ 6000, at the G7 summit, but he received in return a picture of the American social reformer, Frederick Douglass, printed from "Wikimedia". It seemed like a particularly awkward moment in international diplomacy, and the son of former US President Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter: "Total disrespect for Biden in a gift exchange."

The State Department paid $1,800 for the bike, but the Philadelphia-based manufacturer demanded $6,000 for this lightweight bike, which was supposed to cost the bike with other arrangements, such as the British Federation picture. Helmet, bronze and silver badge reflecting the British and American flags, $10,000 under normal circumstances.

mysterious mail

Factory owner Stephen Belinky says the State Department initially proposed to him a budget of $1,500 for the bike, and he said on his website that he initially thought he was being targeted by a scam, when he received a "mysterious" email asking if he could produce a custom-made bike. Manually by a foreign person, whose name was not mentioned, in less than two weeks, an achievement that requires 14 hours a day, and he received some hints, such as: the foreign leader ranges between five and eight feet in length, and from a country whose flag consists of red, white and blue, but he did not know that The gift will be to Johnson, until he has already agreed to build the bike at a significantly reduced price.

The White House said the gift was a nod to Biden and Johnson's shared cycling hobby, but if Johnson wanted to use the bike he would likely have to pay in return, as British ministerial law allows government ministers to accept gifts of less than £140 (about 200). dollars), and if they wanted to keep a more expensive gift, they would have to pay the difference, meaning Johnson could either end up paying close to $1,600 for a bike he didn't choose himself, or have it confiscated by his government.

As for the idea of ​​Johnson handing Biden a printed copy of “Wikimedia”, this is not the full story either. British Foreign Office officials found a picture that appeared on the “Wikipedia” page of Frederick Douglass, in the form of a mural painted on a street in Edinburgh of this famous character. Demanding the abolition of the death penalty, Melissa Hayton, who took the photo, tells The Washington Post that the State Department called her and asked for permission to use it as a gift to Biden, who often referred to Douglas in his speeches.

gift cost

"I agreed and gave them a higher-resolution version of the image, but I don't know how they printed it, and assuming they were able to print it in high quality on high-quality paper as well with a nice frame, I didn't see the final output," Hayton wrote in an email.

Hayton, director of Learning and Web Services at the University of Edinburgh, uploaded the image to Wikimedia Commons under a license saying it could be used for free, and did not ask the government to pay for it, but she urged the State Department to contact the artist, Ross Blair, who painted the painting. The mural, and was similarly enthusiastic, telling the BBC that he considered it "a great honor to have his work published on a huge global platform".

10 Downing Street did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the cost of the gift, but the cost of professional printing and framing can run into hundreds of dollars, and US presidents are prohibited from accepting personal gifts from world leaders valued at more than $415, and gifts exceeding this are usually sent. value directly to the National Archives.

Although some in the United States have interpreted the less expensive gift as a simple gift, there is no indication of Biden feeling contempt, and the American first lady, Jill Biden, obtained a first edition of a novel by British writer Daphne du Maurier, which is spinning Set mostly in Cornwall, Johnson's wife, Carrie, received from a visiting guest a silk sash and a leather handbag made by military wives.

Some may see the recent exchange of gifts as a reflection of the embarrassment that occurred in 2009, when former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, gave former US President Barack Obama a pen holder made of the wood of the British Royal Ship, the wood of which was used to make the Oval Office, and presented Obama to Brown Collection of DVDs.

• US presidents are prohibited from accepting personal gifts from world leaders, valued at more than $415, and gifts exceeding this value are usually sent directly to the National Archives.

• The White House said the gift was a nod to Biden and Johnson's shared cycling hobby.

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