President Donald Trump’s plan to accept a $400 million luxury aircraft from the Qatari government has ignited a full-blown firestorm among congressional Democrats, who are treating the proposal not just as a potential constitutional violation, but as a rallying cry they hope can break through with disaffected voters.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is leading the charge, announcing Tuesday that he would place a blanket hold on all Justice Department nominees awaiting Senate confirmation until the White House provides a full accounting of the deal and Attorney General Pam Bondi testifies before Congress. “This is not just naked corruption,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “It’s the kind of thing that even Putin would give a double take.”
Schumer presented a list of questions and demands for the Trump Administration to respond to before he lifts his hold on nominees, focusing primarily on the national security implications of the President accepting a customized Boeing 747-8 jet for use as Air Force One, and then transferring the aircraft to his presidential library: “President Trump has told the American people this is ‘a free jet.’ Does that mean the Qataris are delivering a ready-on-day-one plane with all the security measures already built in? If so, who installed those security measures, and how do we know they were properly installed?” Schumer asked.
For months, Democrats have been searching for a clear, galvanizing issue following their defeat in the 2024 election. More so than Trump’s deportations or sweeping government cuts, many now believe this could be it.
“He’s going to turn Air Force One into Bribe Force One,” Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts tells TIME. “Congress has to be involved with such a clear threat to our national security.”
Those national security concerns appear to be partly rooted in questions about Qatar’s current and past allegiances. For years, the Qatari government sent millions of dollars a month into the Gaza Strip, which helped prop up the Hamas government. In 2017, Trump publicly accused Qatar of funding terrorism and backed a Saudi-led blockade of the country.
Democrats are betting that voters, fatigued by Trump’s provocations but unsure what line he cannot cross, will see the jet deal as a glaring example of personal enrichment and compromised national interests. Last month, the Trump Organization finalized a deal to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar featuring Trump-branded villas and a course constructed by a Saudi firm—the first such foreign venture since Trump returned to office.
Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York called the Qatari’s offer “the most valuable ever conferred on a president by a foreign government,” and described the arrangement as a “flying grift.” In a letter to federal ethics and oversight officials, Torres called for an immediate ethics review and policy reforms to prevent foreign gifts from being converted into private assets by current or former presidents. “In the cruelest irony,” Torres wrote, “Air Force One will have something in common with Hamas: paid for by Qatar.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, led the prosecution of Trump’s second impeachment after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He plans to introduce a resolution calling on Trump to come to Congress to request approval for accepting the $400 million aircraft, according to The New Republic. Raskin plans to cite Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, which says that no one in the federal government can take an emolument in office without the consent of Congress.
Even some Republicans have expressed misgivings with Trump’s plan to accept the Qatari’s offer. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas warned of espionage risks, and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said she’d be “checking for bugs.” Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley flatly wrote on social media that “taking gifts from other countries is never a good practice.”
But others insisted that the story was not resonating outside of Washington.
“To my Democratic colleagues: instead of wasting their time objecting to every time President Trump breathes, maybe you should get outside of D.C. and go connect with the American people. I can promise you they don’t give a rip about an airplane,” Senator Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, said late Tuesday on the Senate floor. “They care about their lives in this economy and the things that have been destroyed in the past four years that President Trump is trying to put back together.”
Democrats know that outrage alone may not be enough to shift public opinion in a political landscape where Trump’s supporters often dismiss criticism as partisan noise. But the Qatar jet controversy—with its mix of constitutional concerns, luxury trappings, and international intrigue —may offer a uniquely potent symbol of what Democrats argue is an ongoing assault on American norms.
“The President of the United States is not permitted to accept flying palaces from foreign princes,” Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia tells TIME. “He obviously should not and cannot accept this gift.”
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