Both Democrats and Republicans have criticized President Donald Trump after he announced the Department of Defense plans to accept a jumbo jet from the government of Qatar, arguing the gift is riddled with both espionage concerns and constitutional questions. But as one expert tells Fox, the latter concern is likely overblown.
Trump ally Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for example, said during an interview on Tuesday that the acquisition of the plane poses “significant espionage and surveillance problems,” while Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., declared, “Trump cannot accept a $400 million flying palace from the royal family of Qatar. Not only is this farcically corrupt, it is blatantly unconstitutional.”
Reports spread Sunday morning that the Trump administration was expected to accept a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from Qatar’s royal family, setting off concerns that Trump would personally take ownership of the plane and violate the emoluments clause of the Constitution. ABC News reported that Trump would use the jet until the end of his term, when it would be given to his presidential library.
Trump confirmed and clarified in a Truth Social post later on Sunday that the Department of Defense was slated to receive the gift, while slamming Democrats for their criticism of the offer.
HOUSE DEMOCRAT CALLS FOR ‘IMMEDIATE’ ETHICS PROBE OF QATARI PLANE GIFT TO TRUMP
“So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” Trump wrote. “Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA.”
At the heart of Democrats’ concern over the matter is the emoluments clause in the Constitution, which states: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
“Trump is literally trying to fly around on a plane from a foreign government while serving as president. That’s a violation of the Constitution. The Emoluments Clause wasn’t a suggestion. It’s the LAW,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said Monday morning following the announcement.
Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that it’s questionable if the emoluments clause even applies to the president, as the Constitution typically stipulates when a clause specifically affects a president and cites the title, such as in the impeachment clause.
“The clause was specifically inserted because of concerns by the Founders at the Constitutional Convention over corruption of our foreign diplomats, especially by the French government. It is questionable whether the emoluments clause even applies to the president since he is not named and the Constitution usually names the president when a provision applies to him. That is why the impeachment clause specifically provides that it applies to the ‘president, vice president and all civil officers of the United States.’ If ‘officers’ of the U.S. included the president, there would be no need for him to be separately listed,” von Spakovsky explained.
He added that the president is the individual “who appoints the ‘officers’ who are subject to the emoluments clause.”
“Antonin Scalia, when he worked at the Justice Department, certainly agreed since he issued an opinion in 1974 pointing out that when the Constitution refers to an ‘officer,’ ‘it invariably refers to someone other than the President or Vice President,’” he continued.
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The jet offer comes after Trump railed against Boeing for pricey government deals to construct a new fleet of Air Force Ones. Even ahead of his first administration, Trump posted on social media in December 2016 that the Boeing “costs are out of control, more than $4 billion” to build the two aircraft.
Trump in 2018 awarded Boeing a $3.9 billion fixed-price agreement to manufacture two new jets. The construction of the jets, however, is not expected to be completed until 2029.
“We’re very disappointed that it’s taking Boeing so long to build a new Air Force One,” Trump said during a press conference on drug prices Monday morning. “You know, we have an Air Force One that’s 40 years old. And if you take a look at that, compared to the new plane of the equivalent, you know, stature at the time, it’s not even the same ballgame.”
TRUMP CLARIFIES OWNERSHIP OF AIRCRAFT IN DEFENSE OF QATAR’S GIFT
“When I first came in, I signed an order to get (the new Air Force One fleet) built,” he continued. “I took it over from the Obama administration, they had originally agreed. I got the price down much lower. And then, when the election didn’t exactly work out the way that it should have, a lot of work was not done on the plane because a lot of people didn’t know they made change orders. That was so stupid, so ridiculous. And it ended up being a total mess, a real mess.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also brushed off concern over the Qatari royal family donating a Boeing jumbo jet to the U.S. Department of Defense, arguing on Monday there will be no quid pro quo arrangement and that the donation is under legal review to ensure full compliance with the law.
Von Spakovsky said that if the plane is in fact a government-to-government gift – and not a personal gift to the president – the Trump administration is likely in the legal clear to accept the gift.
“If this gift is being considered as a gift to the government of the U.S., there is no legal issue to consider, since there is no constitutional or legal problem with such a gift. If this is a personal gift to the president, the Justice Department would be weighing the constitutional issue I have raised – whether the emoluments clause even applies to the president,” he said.
Von Spakovsky said such a government-to-government gift “is no different than the thousands of cherry trees gifted to the U.S. by the Japanese government” in 1912 that still draw more than a million tourists to Washington, D.C., each spring.
Allies of the president, such as Cruz, said espionage concerns weigh heavily over the planned deal, citing Qatar’s ties to terrorist groups.
“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 during an interview Tuesday on CNBC.
“I also think the plane poses significant espionage and surveillance problems,” he added. “We’ll see how this issue plays out, but I certainly have concerns.”
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Democrats, such as Sens. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Dick Durbin of Illinois also warned that the plane would come with security issues. Reed, for example, claimed in a statement that using the plane as Air Force One “would pose immense counterintelligence risks by granting a foreign nation potential access to sensitive systems and communications.”
While Democrats and some Republicans have criticized Trump over the move, other Republican lawmakers have said they are zoned in on legislative matters and are not looped into the plane issue.
“I actually haven’t paid attention to it,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., previously told Fox News Digital. “I’m sorry to be so out of the loop on that. I’ve just been thinking about Medicaid and about what the House is sending over.”
QATAR OFFERS TRUMP JUMBO JET TO SERVE AS AIR FORCE ONE
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, another Trump ally, said she didn’t know enough about the deal to comment on it when pressed by Fox News Digital. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Eric Schmitt of Missouri also said they did not know details of the plane.
Trump is currently in the midst of a four-day trip to the Middle East, including visiting Qatar on Wednesday, where his motorcade was met by dozens of camels, as well as Tesla Cybertrucks in an apparent nod to Department of Government Efficiency official and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The plane is not expected to be presented to the president nor accepted by Trump during his trip abroad.
“The Boeing 747 is being given to the United States Air Force/Department of Defense, NOT TO ME!” Trump posted to his Truth Social account while in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. “It is a gift from a Nation, Qatar, that we have successfully defended for many years. It will be used by our Government as a temporary Air Force One, until such time as our new Boeings, which are very late on delivery, arrive.”
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