Trump’s critics and supporters unite against Qatar plane deal

By Faith Barbara N Ruhinda Updated at 1001 EAT on Thursday 15 May 2025

The idea that Donald Trumps’s acceptence of a plane from Qatar has drawn bipartism scrutiny underscores how some behaviors transsend party loyalty and tap into broader concerns about propriety,national interest and foreign entanglements.

The problem for the White House is that unity is happening in opposition to it.

Predictably, Trump’s opponents in the Democratic Party slammed the president after he indicated he would accept a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family.

More noteworthy and potentially more troubling for the president is that some of his strongest supporters also have serious reservations about the deal, even as it’s yet to be finalised.

Maga influencers have described the move as a bribe, grift, or an example of the high-level corruption that Trump himself has consistently promised root out.

The Qatari royal family plans to give the luxury Boeing 747-8, estimated to be worth $400m (£300m), to the US Department of Defence to be used as part of a fleet of planes dubbed Air Force One the president’s official mode of air travel.

The current fleet includes two 747-200 jets which have been in use since 1990, along several smaller and somewhat secretive 757s.

The White House says that the new plane – which could require years and millions of dollars to refit and upgrade – will be transferred to Trump’s presidential library at the end of his term.

Qatar is not allegedly giving President Trump a $400m jet out of the goodness of their sweet little hearts,” he said. They try to stuff money into pockets in totally bipartisan fashion.

He and others pointed to allegations that Qatar has funnelled money into terrorist groups allegations the country has denied and called Qataris the world’s largest proponents of terrorism on an international scale.

Laura Loomer, the conspiracy-spreading social media influencer who agitates for sackings of top white House officials deemed insufficiently loyal.

Although she said she still supports the president, she called the plane deal a stain and posted a cartoon of the Trojan Horse, redrawn as a plane and filled with armed Islamist militants.

The New York Post, which usually can be counted on to back much of the populist Maga agenda, ran a blunt editorial Qatar’s Palace in the Sky jet is NOT a free gift and Trump shouldn’t accept it as one.

In response to criticism of the deal, the White House has doubled down. Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the administration was committed to full transparency.

Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws, she said.

Although there has been nothing offered in exchange for the plane, many commentators said it would be naïve to expect that that Qatari royal family would hand out such a large item with no strings attached.

On Truth Social, the president later reposted several messages pointing out that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France, and wrote late Tuesday: “The Boeing 747 is being given to the United States Air Force/Department of Defense, NOT TO ME!”

“Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our Country,” he wrote.

However even some within Trump’s Republican Party were expressing concern.

I think it’s not worth the appearance of impropriety, whether it’s improper or not,” Rand Paul, Republican senator from Kentucky, told Fox News.

I wonder if our ability to judge [Qatar’s] human rights record will be clouded by the fact of this large gift,” Paul said.

Another Republican senator, Ted Cruz of Texas, said accepting the gift would pose “significant espionage and surveillance problems”.

Trump did find some support within his party. “Free is good. You know, we don’t have a lot of money right now to buy things like that.

Doug Heye, the Republican strategist, suggested that the deal might not hurt Trump’s popularity with his base in the long term.

Trump has been able for years now to turn scandals that would otherwise be debilitating for other politicians into things that we forget,” he said. “He’s very skilled at that.”

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