The Trump administration is preparing to accept a superluxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar as a gift to be used by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One for presidential travel until shortly before Trump leaves office, according to four sources familiar with the planning.
Two of the sources also confirm that ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation once the president ends his second term.
According to one of the sources, the arrangement will be done according to U.S. and international laws, in observance of ethics rules. That official said it will take some time for the plane to be delivered but that the president will discuss the arrangement during his visit to Qatar this week.
Another one of the sources said the idea of gifting Trump this specific plane has been under discussion for “quite some time” and that when the formal offer was made more recently, the president “happily accepted.”
ABC News first reported the gift.
In response to questions about Qatar giving the plane to Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said gifts from foreign governments are accepted following the law.
“Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws,” Leavitt said. “President Trump’s Administration is committed to full transparency.”
A White House official tells NBC News that it is true Qatar has offered to donate a plane to the Department of Defense, but the gift will not be presented nor accepted this week while Trump is in Qatar.
Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attaché to the U.S., added in a statement, “The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made.”
Democrats have criticized the Trump administration amid reports about their plans to accept a plane, saying that a gift of this magnitude would need congressional approval.
“Trump must seek Congress’ consent to take this $300 million gift from Qatar. The Constitution is perfectly clear: no present “of any kind whatever” from a foreign state without Congressional permission. A gift you use for four years and then deposit in your library is still a gift (and a grift),” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in a post on X.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., called for an investigation into the administration’s plans to accept the plane, characterizing it as a “flying grift” that is “the most valuable gift ever conferred on a President by a foreign government.”
“Rather than enforcing ethics, the Attorney General has affixed the Department of Justice’s seal of approval to a transaction that flagrantly violates both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause,” Torres wrote in a letter to the head of the Government Accountability Office, the acting Inspector General of the Defense Department and the acting director of the Office of Government Ethics.
Axios was the first to report on Torres’ letter.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer similarly blasted Trump, calling the plane an example of “foreign influence.”
“Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar. It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom,” Schumer, D-N.Y. wrote in a post on X.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., went even further, calling the move “corrupt” and “unconstitutional.”
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but NO, Donald Trump cannot accept a $400 million flying palace from the royal family of Qatar. Not only is this farcically corrupt, it is blatantly unconstitutional,” Sanders wrote.
Justice Department officials did not respond to a question from NBC News whether Trump’s acceptance of the plane could violate federal anti-bribery laws or the Constitution’s emoluments clause which bars the president and other federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign powers without the approval of Congress.
ABC News reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi and other DOJ lawyers had determined that the acceptance of the plane was legally permissible if the Qatari government gifts it to the Defense Department and it is later turned over to the Trump Library Foundation.
A former senior DOJ official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that for the jet gift to violate federal laws barring the payment of bribes or gratuities to officials, the gift would have to be motivated by corrupt intent.
“Bribery requires a corrupt intent to influence an official act, i.e., a quid pro quo,” said the former official.
Norm Eisen, who served as special assistant to the president for ethics in the Obama administration, said that the gift violated the emoluments clause. Eisen, a longtime critic of Trump’s ethics in office, and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that he is considering whether to challenge the transfer of the 747 in court.
“Suffice it to say that I and many others are looking,” said Eisen, who referred to the plane as “emoluments force one.”
Eisen said that he believed the plane could not be accepted without the approval of Congress.
“I do think there is a violation here. The problem is that you have what is functionally a direct gift to the president,” Eisen added.
News of the plane comes ahead of the president’s first foreign trip of his second term, in which he will travel to Saudi Arabia this week and also make stops in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
While in Qatar, Trump is expected to deliver a speech and then talk with American troops at the Al Udeid Air Base, according to two U.S. officials.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to accompany Trump during his stop at the base.
This is the second time Trump has decided to visit Saudi Arabia for his first foreign trip. He chose the same nation as his first stop in 2017, during his first term.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com