A handful of congressional Republicans voiced fresh concerns on Tuesday about President Donald Trump’s plans to accept a gift of a Qatari luxury jet worth $400 million to join the Air Force One fleet.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), expanding on comments he made the previous day, said that there “will be plenty of scrutiny” of the transfer if it occurs. “There are lots of issues around that that I think will attract very serious questions if and when it happens.” But he also downplayed the gift as purely “hypothetical” at this point.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told CNN, “It’s not my decision to make. I think the president would agree that we’ve got to do a careful check for security concerns, but beyond that, it’s his decision.”

For his part, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday morning local time defending the move.

“The Boeing 747 is being given to the United States Air Force/Department of Defense, NOT TO ME! It is a gift from a Nation, Qatar, that we have successfully defended for many years,” Trump said. “It will be used by our Government as a temporary Air Force One, until such time as our new Boeings, which are very late on delivery, arrive. 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.”

“This big savings will be spent, instead, to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our Country,” he continued. CNN reported that it could cost hundreds of millions and take up to two years to retrofit the plane with the systems necessary for Air Force One.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) came out strongly against the gift, saying, “I’m not a fan of Qatar, I think they have a really disturbing pattern of funding theocratic lunatics who want to murder us, funding Hamas and Hezbollah and that’s a real problem. I also think that the plane poses significant espionage and surveillance problems, so we’ll see how this issue plays out, but I certainly have concerns.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) indicated he’s skeptical of the offering.

“If it’s just given to the U.S. government — I guess you really shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but any use beyond that, that’s something that I would have a hard time supporting,” Johnson said. “I’d be a little concerned about accepting a gift to the federal government that way, I mean, it’s a very odd offer. Obviously, people just don’t give you things without expecting something in return. And you know, Qatar may be useful, but I wouldn’t say they’re our strongest ally.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, said in response to a question about Qatar’s Hamas ties that he’s still gathering information.

“From the president’s standpoint, he wants to be able to have a plane that meets the needs of him and his administration,” Lawler said, “but obviously we don’t want to be straight up accepting any type of gift from any foreign government, certainly any foreign government, certainly not one that can be viewed in a way that obviously has been presented here.”

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) said of the jet during a CNN appearance, “I don’t like it. There’s a reason that people can’t even buy me a steak dinner. It’s not necessarily that you can prove that I’ve got an ethical problem. It’s that the appearance of it doesn’t look great.”

On the Democratic side, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced that he would be placing a blanket hold on all political nominees to the Department of Justice — a first for Schumer as minority leader — to object to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision to sanction the gift. Bondi previously worked as a lobbyist for Qatar.

“As disturbing as this latest news about a Qatari Air Force One is, it is frankly just the tip of the iceberg. For months Qatari and other Gulf state nationals have spent billions on deals with the Trump organizations, seemingly to buy access to the president,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. 

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) took to the Senate floor to ask for unanimous consent for the Senate to consider and vote on a resolution opposing the gift, but was blocked by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).

“A law enforcement official called the gift a ‘security nightmare’ because it requires basically the whole thing to be busted up, taken apart and reconstituted,” Schatz said. “If that all sounds blatantly corrupt and incredibly wasteful, it is because it is. … Multiple presidents of both parties and multiple generations have done extraordinary work [on Air Force One] making sure that we are indispensable nation, that we are the leader of the free world — now sponsored by Qatar.”

He said that it would take billions of dollars and years to bring the plane up to the necessary requirements for presidential use before Trump leaves office.

Tuberville dismissed the gift as “not a done deal,” downplayed security concerns and dismissed reports that the plane would remain available for Trump’s use after he leaves office.

“It is customary and normal for foreign countries to give our government gifts. The DOJ has already said that this does not violate any law,” Tuberville said. “So why are my colleagues and the woke media having a full blown meltdown over the situation? Perhaps it’s because the last 72 hours, President Trump has delivered so many wins you can’t count them all.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that there are “foreign powers all over the world who would like nothing better than a Qatari plane [that] could be carrying the president of the United States, potentially bugged, infiltrated by systems that could be hacked by them, not just by Qatar or other Middle East nations. It is a threat to our national security to have the president of the United States riding in this plane.”

Blumenthal asked for unanimous consent for the Senate’s legal counsel to sue to enforce the Constitution’s emoluments clause — which requires the president to obtain congressional approval before accepting a gift from a foreign government — to block the gift, but Tuberville again objected.

Senate Democrats will be able to force votes on other moves they’re planning in response to the Qatari offer, including an effort to block arms sales to Doha.

Additionally, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) wrote to the Department of Defense’s inspector general requesting additional information about the anticipated gift.