Though President Donald Trump’s plans to accept a lavish jumbo jet from Qatar are raising outrage among Democrats, the move isn’t prompting any notable political shifts in the U.S. views toward the Qatari regime, with some Democrats downplaying the relevance of Qatar’s specific role in the bargain and many Senate Republicans avoiding criticizing Trump or the offered gift.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), long an outspoken critic of Qatar, was one of the few Senate Republicans to strongly argue that accepting the plane would be risky.

“I’m not flying on a Qatari plane. They support Hamas,” Scott told Jewish Insider. “I don’t know how you can make it safe … I don’t want the president of the United States flying on an unsafe plane.”

Asked if he’d advise Trump not to accept the plane, Scott demurred, saying that’s Trump’s choice to make, subsequently reiterating his security worries.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Trump should reject the gift, explaining, “I don’t think it looks good or smells good.”

Other Republicans on Monday downplayed concerns.

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC), one of the most vocal critics of Qatar’s relationship with Hamas on the Hill, told JI he’s “sure [the administration has] good legal advice and will follow the law.” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that the legal questions around the extravagant gift are “still being worked out.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said of security concerns that he doesn’t “think it’s a big deal at all” because there was “zero chance in the world we’d take the plane and fly it. We would strip the whole thing down and put all of our electronics on it, and we’re not going to use anything on there.”

“They do that for Boeing, they strip it all the way down the bare bones, rebuild it all the way back up. We need the frame. They’re not making 747s anymore. We need the frame, and when we take the frame, we’ll strip it down and put all of our stuff in it. I’m not concerned about bugs or anything else in the thing at all, not even a little bit,” Mullin continued.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), said that it does not raise national security concerns “at this point, as long as they follow the law.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told JI, “We ought to follow the law.” Pressed on whether he sees the gift as violating the law, Kennedy responded, “I don’t know. I haven’t researched it.”

Other Senate Republicans took a more cautious approach while still not outright opposing the gift.

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said, “All that I hear is the administration saying, ‘We’re going to follow the law.’ That’s important to be able to say and the law has been clear and the practice has been clear, and I’m waiting to be able to see the rest of the details.”

Lankford said that there are clear security considerations, noting that planes used as Air Force One have been historically built entirely by those with high-level security clearances. “No other aircraft in the world is built in that way. So yes, there are security issues that are different.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) indicated that he would not be concerned about the plane as long as it is given to the U.S. government. “The one thing I would say is I’d fly it several times before I let the president get on it,” Tillis added.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said she was “surprised” by the news and said that lawmakers would have to examine whether it might be implicated under laws governing foreign gifts. The Constitution’s emoluments clause forbids the president from accepting gifts “from any King, Prince or foreign State” without congressional approval.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Trump is frustrated by Boeing’s delays in completing a new plane set to join the Air Force One fleet, adding, “Whether or not this is the right solution or not, I don’t know.”

On the Democratic side of the aisle, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) plans to force a vote on a resolution objecting to the transfer of the plane. But Schatz told JI that the U.S.-Qatari relationship is not the crux of the issue.

“The point is that an American president is taking $400 million from a foreign country. It doesn’t matter what country it is, doesn’t matter what president it is, doesn’t matter what the context is,” Coons said. “There’s no context in which this makes sense. There’s no legal justification. There’s no moral justification. This is one of the most outrageous things that an American president has ever done. It’s got nothing to do with Qatar. It’s got nothing to do with Trump. Presidents don’t take gifts.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) compared the airplane to the Trojan horse from Greek mythology but softened his direct criticism of Qatar.

“No matter how much we may like the Qataris, if they offered to decorate the Oval Office and wire the situation room and build a new press room in the White House, would we accept that gift?” Coons said. “Maybe [Trump] is a little distracted and more focused on the luxuriousness of the jet rather than its security as an operating platform for the president and a representation of the United States.”

When he was asked about what the offer says about the U.S.-Qatar relationship, Coons said, “I think they’re used to operating by different standards of public transparency and accountability. I am grateful for the role that Qatar has long played in hosting American armed forces … and they are a major non-NATO ally. But this is, I think, a very complicating gift that should not have been offered in this form at this time.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) — who once described Qatar as the U.S.’ “best partner” in the Gulf — said he plans to force Senate votes on blocking any proposed arms sales to Qatar or the United Arab Emirates, the leaders of which have invested heavily in a Trump family-linked cryptocurrency.

“UAE’s investment in Trump crypto and Qatar’s gifting of a plane is nuclear-grade graft. An unacceptable corruption of our foreign policy,” Murphy said.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told JI the plane was “clearly a personal gift” and a clear violation of the Constitution.

“Somebody advising Qatar should say, ‘Guys, this is going to make you look really bad.’ And Qatar usually has pretty sophisticated diplomats giving them advice,” Kaine said. “That Qatar would think they could make this offer publicly and so clearly violate the law — President Trump is just going to be president for another three and a half years. You would think that they would want the relationship to be a strong one for more than just the Trump term. It’s going to make people here look so skeptically at their motivations.”

He said he’s planning to support Murphy’s resolution to block arms sales, with the goal of seeing Qatar rescind the portion of the deal that would see the plane transferred to Trump’s presidential library at the end of his term.

“It can’t be a personal gift. Even if it was a gift to the United States to help President Trump, it smells bad,” Kaine said.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote to the White House counsel describing the gift as an apparent violation of the Constitution.

“It sends the very worst message to Americans about being in public office to enrich himself, instead of being focused on the best interests of the country,” Shaheen told reporters. She said “we need to consider options” to address the situation, including blocking arms sales to Qatar.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called it “an appalling breach of ethical standards” which “represents a blatant conflict of interest and undermines the integrity of American leadership.”

He said that it also presents “immense counterintelligence risks” and constitutes “reckless disregard for national security and diplomatic propriety.”

Jewish Insider’s congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed reporting.