Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said there will be “plenty of scrutiny” of a controversial decision by President Trump to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jetliner from Qatar to become the new Air Force One, a deal that has drawn criticism from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Thune said Trump’s plan to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar to serve as his command post in the sky remains a “hypothetical,” raising questions about whether the deal will even go through.
But if it does, Thune said there will be a lot of scrutiny from lawmakers and national security experts, given concerns about whether the gift violates the Constitution’s emoluments clause — which prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments without the approval of Congress — or might open the president’s communications to espionage or foreign surveillance.
“I don’t think there’s anything official out there. This is a hypothetical,” he told reporters Tuesday. “If and when it’s no longer a hypothetical, I can assure you there will be plenty of scrutiny of whatever that arrangement might look like.”
Asked about the national security implications of accepting a jet to serve as Air Force One from Qatar, Thune replied: “There will be plenty of scrutiny.”
“There are lots of issues around that that I think will attract very serious questions if and when it happens,” he said.
Trump at a press conference in 2017 called Qatar “a funder of terrorism at a very high level” amid a diplomatic dispute at the time with Saudi Arabia.
But Trump on Monday said it would be “stupid” for him to turn down the gift from Qatar, calling it a “great gesture.”
“I would never be one to turn down that kind of offer,” he told reporters before leaving for a trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) warned that Trump’s acceptance of the gift, which would ultimately go to his future presidential library, according to media reports, posed serious “espionage and surveillance problems.”
“I’m not a fan of Qatar. I think they have a really disturbing pattern of funding theocratic lunatics who want to murder us, funding Hamas and Hezbollah. And that’s a real problem,” Cruz said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday.
“I also think the plane poses significant espionage and surveillance problems,” he warned. “We’ll see how this issue plays out but I certainly have concerns.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) has vowed to hold up Trump’s political department of justice nominees to protest the transfer of the plane.
“This just isn’t naked corruption, it’s also a national security threat,” Schumer said Tuesday afternoon.
“He is jeopardizing America’s national security to line his own pockets,” Schumer said of the president. “That’s why this morning I announced I will be placing a hold on all political [Department of Justice] nominees until we get more answers on this so-called deal.”
