Republican lawmakers are signaling growing concern over President Trump's openness to accepting a $400 million plane from Qatar to serve as the new Air Force One, an unprecedented move fraught with ethical and legal issues that is testing even his biggest loyalists.
The chorus of reservations being expressed by Republican lawmakers represents a rare break with the president, who typically enjoys near total unanimity from the party.
On Wednesday, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, was among those taking issue with the idea. McCaul said he certainly received gifts in his former role as chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee and believed countries can gift to other countries, but a luxury Boeing 747 jet may go too far.
"This one's pretty lavish!" McCaul said in a brief interview. "I would certainly sweep to make sure there aren't any surveillance bugs on it."
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said the move signals that Qatar is looking to get close to the U.S., but should instead be cutting ties with militant Islamic groups. He argued the president's plane should not come from a foreign nation.
"I prefer a big, beautiful plane built in the United States, made in America, bought in America," he said.
National security and aviation experts say the offer, first reported by ABC News, comes with plenty of risks. For his part, Trump has said the existing Air Force One planes are old and expensive to maintain, and he has long complained about the time it has taken for Boeing to deliver a pair of replacements that he agreed to pay $3.9 billion for during his first term.
Shortly before leaving for his current Middle East tour, Trump said it would be "stupid" not to accept the jet. On Tuesday night he again defended the plan, saying the plane was being offered as a gift to the Department of Defense, not to him.
"Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE from a country that wants to reward us for a job well done," Trump said on social media.
The move would call for the Qatari plane to be retrofitted to serve as the new Air Force One, a complicated process that could stretch for years. Trump has said the plane would be decommissioned after his term and then put on display at his presidential library. He has also said he would not use it after leaving office.
Some Republicans say the plan is far from final
His comments followed remarks Tuesday by some of his biggest supporters, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who say the effort presents security and legal challenges.
Some inside the party, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., cautioned the plan is far from a sure thing.
"I don't think there's anything official out there, this is a hypothetical," Thune told reporters. "I am sure 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."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said there are enough questions surrounding the gift to trigger pause for the president.
"I got a lot of lot of concerns," she said. "I don't imagine it's going to go forward, but maybe? Maybe they're looking at it differently than me."
Others in the party were less worried, and dismissed concerns that the gift represented a potential avenue for spying on the U.S.
"Yeah, 100% support it," said Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a member of the Armed Services Committee.
"For anybody that has security concerns about it, they're absolutely ignorant on intelligence. We are the best in the world at it, we understand what they could do and we understand how to find it better than anybody," Mullin said.
Democrats say the plan could impact arms sales to Qatar
Senate Democrats are already planning to bring up a resolution of disapproval on the plans to gift the plane, but several concede that's expected to fail. Democrats say the gift is a clear violation of the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, which forbids office holders from accepting a present "of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State."
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, the party's top member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Democrats plan to ask the Department of Defense for estimates to retrofit the jet — a figure he argues could bring the total price tag close to $1 billion.
"These aircraft are so unique," Reed said. "You have to ensure that there's nothing in the plane that's an intelligence source for someone else — you literally have to take it apart the plane and put it together."
He also noted "one of the other ironies" was that the U.S. manufacturer who would likely be needed to retrofit the plane for the president is Boeing — the same company already contracted to build new planes to be used as Air Force One.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., admitted that Democratic efforts to force a vote on a resolution disapproving of the gift are unlikely to succeed. So he pointed to an upcoming vote to approve U.S. arms sales to Qatar as the chance to make Republicans go on the record.
"There's no doubt that vote will be a proxy on whether you think it's OK for a foreign government to hand a $400 million plane to the president of the United States."
The debate over the plane has put plenty of Republicans in a bind over how to respond. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., avoided addressing the dilemma with reporters on Wednesday. Johnson said his focus was on the reconciliation bill that House Republicans are hoping to pass by Memorial Day to enact the president's domestic agenda.
"There are authorities that police the executive branch," Johnson said. "That's not me."
Despite Johnson's remark, Congress does in fact have the authority to investigate the executive branch. When Democrats controlled the House during Trump's first term, for example, they conducted oversight of the Trump hotel and maintained his arrangement on the lease and money from foreign dignitaries who stayed in the hotel violated ethics rules.
Luke Garrett, Elena Moore and Barbara Sprunt contributed reporting.
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