{"id":7944,"date":"2026-07-21T21:05:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7944"},"modified":"2026-07-21T21:05:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:05:26","slug":"all-the-problems-with-trumps-qatari-jet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7944","title":{"rendered":"All the problems with Trump\u2019s Qatari jet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
The new Air Force One is a Qatari jet gifted to the president last year. (Andrew Leyden\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The luxury jet that the Qatari royal family gifted to President Donald Trump last summer has been problematic for him from the start.<\/p>

Read more Katie Porter \u2018done for now\u2019 with politics, will become book influencer<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump said at the time that he would be a \u201cstupid person\u201d not to take \u201ca free plane.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the arrangement has raised security, ethical and even constitutional questions \u2014 none of which have been resolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that any entity \u2014 in this case, a foreign government no less \u2014 provides an expensive gift for the president to use while in office raises a red flag,” said Meredith McGehee, a government ethics expert who formerly led the bipartisan political reform group Issue One.<\/p>\n

More concerns have been raised since Trump flew on the jet to a NATO meeting in Turkey this month, then didn\u2019t return home on it. He suggested Iran could have attacked it.<\/p>\n

This week, Trump said the jet will be \u201cmaxed out\u201d<\/a> over the next month but did not give specifics. Reporting about security concerns surrounding the plane might have prompted the aggressive effort<\/a> to subpoena New York Times reporters, which has raised alarms about press freedom.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s going on with the Qatari jet gifted to Trump.<\/p>\n

Even members of Trump\u2019s party balked at the president using a Middle Eastern-made plane for Air Force One, which is supposed to serve as both a secure plane for the president\u2019s travel and essentially a flying Oval Office where the president can get a hold of pretty much anyone.<\/p>\n

Current and former U.S. officials told The Washington Post<\/a> last year that retrofitting a foreign jet built for royals to strict U.S. military standards would probably take years and cost billions of dollars. In other words, it would be impossible to fly before Trump left office.<\/p>\n

A year after he accepted it, Trump flew in it to Turkey this month; it still featured the cream-and-tan leather seating designed for the Qatari royal family. Trump denied that security concerns were why he didn\u2019t fly back on it.<\/p>\n

A hallmark of Trump\u2019s second administration is his willingness to accept donations for his projects from billionaires and corporations with business before the government.<\/p>\n

Good-governance experts say the Qatari jet raises quid-pro-quo concerns, as well.<\/p>\n

Ironically, that Trump accepts such gifts out in the open can insulate him from corruption allegations, said Kedric Payne, who leads the ethics program at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan group that favors stricter campaign finance regulation. \u201cThe president doesn\u2019t seem to be trying to cover up anything,\u201d Payne said.<\/p>

Read more Schumer declines to endorse likely Democratic Senate nominee in Maine<\/a><\/p>\n

He cited the Qatari jet as example No. 1: \u201cTrump said, \u2018Yeah, why wouldn\u2019t I take it?\u2019\u201d Payne said. \u201cAnd so everyone was fully aware of it, and it didn\u2019t seem to be as big of a problem as it was for Bob Menendez, who took a free Mercedes and bars of gold but didn\u2019t do it out in the open.\u201d (The former senator from New Jersey was sentenced to 11 years in prison<\/a> last year in a corruption case.)<\/p>\n

McGehee said the gifting of the plane is comparable to a corporation giving the president free computers or free food \u201cor free anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would appropriately be seen as an unethical attempt to curry favor with a powerful government official,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it would further tilt a system more in favor of moneyed special interests, which already have many ways to exploit a system that benefits who can afford to pay to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Constitution says that no president can accept a gift from a foreigner or foreign nation without approval from Congress.<\/p>\n

The emoluments clause was an obscure part of the Constitution until Trump\u2019s first term, during which he fended off lawsuits that alleged he was violating it as foreign governments spent millions<\/a> staying at or renting spaces in Trump-owned properties.<\/p>\n

Trump pushed back against similar criticisms about the plane by saying that it\u2019s technically the property of the military, not his, and that he intended to use the plane for a \u201ccouple of years\u201d while his administration waits for a pair of Boeing planes, which are over budget, to be completed<\/a>. But, after leaving office, Trump plans to display the plane at his presidential library, lending fuel to critics\u2019 arguments that he\u2019s violating the Constitution.<\/p>\n

The $400 million jet may just scratch the surface on the gifts Trump may be receiving from foreign nations, say some ethics experts.<\/p>\n

Trump has also made billions in cryptocurrency, which opens up an avenue for foreign governments to gift him literal wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaudi Arabia can only buy so many hotel rooms,\u201d said Jordan Libowitz of the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. \u201cBut a sovereign wealth fund can just throw hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump\u2019s crypto account and immediately raise his net worth. The scale of what they\u2019re able to do has very much changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amber Phillips<\/i><\/a> writes <\/i>The 5-Minute Fix newsletter<\/i><\/a>, a quick analysis of the day\u2019s biggest political news. <\/i>Send her an email here<\/i><\/a>, or <\/i>ask a question<\/i><\/a> that could be featured in an upcoming newsletter.<\/i><\/p>

Read more Nearly 400 noncitizens voted in elections in New Jersey, governor says<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using it as Air Force One has raised significant security, ethical and legal concerns. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nAll the problems with Trump\u2019s Qatari jet - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7944\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"All the problems with Trump\u2019s Qatari jet - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Using it as Air Force One has raised significant security, ethical and legal concerns.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7944\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-21T21:05:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1646f633191ada62a1c690ca87bd4974-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1706\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7944#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7944\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"All the problems with Trump\u2019s Qatari jet\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-21T21:05:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7944\"},\"wordCount\":915,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7944#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/4c5d6620c5c0ede3e8644c1b05249993-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7944#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7944\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7944\",\"name\":\"All the problems with Trump\u2019s Qatari jet - 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