Lavish Boeing 747 offer intensifies scrutiny over foreign influence, crypto ventures, and presidential profiteering
President Donald Trump’s acceptance of a $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 jet from the Qatari royal family has sparked a global uproar, drawing sharp criticism from across the political spectrum and intensifying scrutiny of his financial entanglements with foreign powers.
Dubbed a “palace in the sky,” the Qatari jet is the latest and most visible symbol of Trump’s expanding network of wealth acquisition during his second term in office. Critics argue it is the most blatant example yet of how the president is leveraging global relationships for personal gain.
“Golden Age … for Trumps” was the headline in Axios last week — a pointed twist on Trump’s inaugural promise of a “golden age for America.”
The gift comes amid a broader web of opaque financial dealings that have catapulted Trump into what The Wall Street Journal recently termed a “crypto billionaire.” These ventures include a family-backed cryptocurrency firm, World Liberty Financial, and extensive branding deals in real estate and golf developments across the Middle East.
The controversy deepened when ABC News reported the jet offer on Sunday, prompting widespread condemnation. “If this were Biden, we would be furious,” former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley wrote on social media. Prominent right-wing commentators Ben Shapiro and Laura Loomer also expressed outrage, while critics offered biting nicknames for the aircraft: Swamp Force One, Grift Force One, Hamas Force One.
“He is infuriated that he begins his second term flying around in the same aging planes that once transported President George H.W. Bush,” The New York Times reported in February, noting Trump’s public frustration over the outdated Air Force One.
Trump, who is on a tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, lashed out at critics on Wednesday via social media. “Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE,” he wrote from Saudi Arabia.
“You’d have to be stupid to believe that a $400 million plane, offered by a foreign government, is ‘free,’” countered former Obama advisor David Axelrod on X.
Experts note that the Qatari aircraft would require an expensive overhaul — including high-security modifications — before it could be used for presidential travel, with the real cost to taxpayers potentially soaring into the hundreds of millions.
Meanwhile, Trump’s foreign ventures are rapidly multiplying. Ahead of his trip, son Eric Trump crisscrossed the Gulf promoting the family’s crypto and real estate empire. In Dubai, he unveiled a $2 billion cryptocurrency deal funded by Abu Dhabi. In Qatar, he attended the signing of a Trump-branded golf course and luxury villa development to be built by a Saudi firm.
Donald Trump Jr., meanwhile, was touring Eastern Europe, giving paid speeches under the “Trump Business Vision 2025” banner while courting local officials and investors.
World Liberty Financial, formed just before the election, has attracted significant foreign investment. Trump, its “Chief Crypto Advocate,” has used his platform to promote its digital tokens — including the $Trump meme coin. The top 220 buyers of the coin will soon attend a private dinner with the president at one of his golf courses.
Despite clear legal prohibitions against foreign contributions to presidential campaigns or inaugural committees, Trump’s crypto ventures appear to offer a workaround. His administration has advanced a pro-crypto agenda, appointing a crypto-friendly SEC chair, signing executive orders, and dismantling the government’s crypto crimes task force.
As The Wall Street Journal warned in January, Trump is “inviting trouble with what looks like remarkably poor judgment.”
That trouble, now propelled by a $400 million jet from a foreign government, could prove far more combustible than even his most fervent critics anticipated.
