Overview
- Senate Appropriations Committee Republicans voted 15-14 to defeat Sen. Chris Murphy’s amendment barring President Trump from taking the Qatari-gifted jet post-presidency
- The Department of Defense has reallocated funds to retrofit the Boeing 747-8 as a stopgap Air Force One replacement at an estimated cost exceeding $1 billion
- Democrats raised constitutional and ethical objections, warning that the foreign‐government gift could violate the Emoluments Clause and saddle taxpayers with costly upgrades
- Senate Republicans labeled the amendment a “poison pill,” arguing that decisions on the plane’s long-term disposition should await broader defense legislation
- The White House asserts the aircraft belongs to the United States and plans to transfer it to Trump’s presidential library when his term ends