President Donald Trump’s openness to accepting a luxury jet from Qatar triggered sharp criticism from legal experts, who cited potential violations of the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause.
Trump has defended the reported gift as “a gesture of good faith,” dismissing concerns that it violates U.S. ethics laws or the Constitution.
Central to the controversy is the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits government officials from accepting gifts or benefits from foreign entities without approval from Congress.
What is an emolument?
An emolument is any form of payment, gift, salary, or benefit received as compensation for services or as a result of holding an office or position. In the context of the U.S. Constitution, the term refers to profits or benefits federal officials could receive from foreign governments, which are constrained to prevent influence or conflicts of interest.
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution bars federal officials from accepting any present, office, or title from a foreign state without congressional consent.
Article II addresses domestic emoluments by barring Congress from altering the president’s salary during a term and prohibiting the president from accepting additional benefits or payments from individual states.
The jet, intended as a temporary replacement for the aging Air Force One, would later be transferred to Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office. According to the president, the Defense Department would receive the plane first.
Trump dismissed criticism on Monday, telling reporters it would be “stupid” not to accept the gift, which he described as a “great gesture” from Qatar.
“They said, ‘We would like to do something,’ and if we can get a 747 as a contribution to our Defense Department to use during a couple of years while they’re building the other ones, I think that was a very nice gesture,” he said.
The luxury 747, now stationed at Palm Beach International Airport near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, is not expected to be used for personal travel after his presidency. Instead, it may be retired in a manner similar to former President Ronald Reagan’s Boeing 707, which is now on display at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
As Trump prepares for his trip to Qatar, questions of business entanglements loom large. The visit comes just two weeks after his son, Eric Trump, signed a $5.5 billion deal to develop the Trump International Golf Club, Simaisma, just north of Doha. The project will feature an 18-hole golf course, an exclusive clubhouse, and Trump-branded villas, further deepening the family’s financial ties in the Gulf region.
His company is actively pursuing multiple foreign ventures, including three projects in Saudi Arabia, a pair of luxury residential developments, and a golf course, in partnership with Dar Global, a firm reportedly tied to the Saudi government.
Has the clause been challenged before?
The Supreme Court passed on an opportunity to define the scope of the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause in a long-running case tied to Trump’s international business holdings.
The case, brought by a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog in 2017, alleged that Trump’s failure to divest from his global enterprises allowed him to profit from foreign government spending at his hotels, leases, and real estate deals while in office. When Trump left the presidency in 2021, the court dismissed the case as moot, leaving the constitutional provision largely untested and unresolved.
Senate Democrats condemned the $400 million jet as an unconstitutional and unethical gift to the president. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed to block all Department of Justice nominees until Attorney General Pam Bondi, a former lobbyist for Qatar, explains how the gift complies with the Emoluments Clause and federal ethics laws.
“How is this gift not naked corruption? The Attorney General must testify before both the House and Senate to explain why gifting Donald Trump a private jet does not violate the emoluments clause, which requires congressional approval, or any other ethics laws,” Schumer said, speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday.
“So until the Attorney General explains her blatantly inept decision and we get complete and comprehensive answers to these and other questions, I will place a hold on all political nominees to the Department of Justice,” he added.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) called the jet an unconstitutional gift requiring explicit congressional approval, approval he said lawmakers would decisively reject.
“A $400 million flying palace is an unconstitutional gift to this president, or any president, if it is not explicitly approved by the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. That’s what the Constitution explicitly makes clear,” Jeffries said. “There’s no way around it as far as we are concerned. And so, the president presumably is gonna take that next step and seek congressional authority, which I believe we will clearly and decisively reject.”
In response to long-running investigations into Trump’s international business ties, congressional Democrats unveiled legislation last year to strengthen restrictions on foreign influence. The bills, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), ultimately never advanced.
In an interview on CNN on Monday, Raskin called for a congressional investigation into the Qatar jet gift. He cited broad concerns about Trump’s profits during his presidency, including cryptocurrency ventures that he likened to “the Trump Hotel on steroids.”
“All we need is another three or four Republicans to come with the Democrats to say let’s do our constitutional duty. We cannot let them get away with just trampling the Emoluments Clause because it’s not just these airplanes,” Raskin said. “We have to look at the whole crypto question, too. The Trump family has been making more than a billion dollars a month since the new administration started, and that’s like the Trump hotel on steroids.”
TRUMP DROPS SANCTIONS ON SYRIA AND PREVIEWS EXPANSION OF ABRAHAM ACCORDS IN SAUDI ARABIA
Some Republicans have also raised concerns, primarily pointing to national security risks. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) urged the U.S. to reject Qatar’s jet offer, criticizing the Gulf nation’s ties to Islamic extremists and calling instead for a new Air Force One to be built domestically.
“I think the thing to do is to say, ‘Hey, we appreciate it, but there’s a lot of things you can help us out with, like stopping coddling Islamic fundamentalist terrorists in their own country,’ the Qataris that is. And it’s worth the investment here in this country to build a big beautiful jet here in the United States,” Hawley said, speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
