May 15, 2025 11:35 AM UTC

Jeff Hurd Asking The Wrong Questions About Qatar And The Trump Administration

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• by: Colorado Pols

Yesterday, Colorado’s freshman GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction appeared on CNN’s Situation Room to talk about, among a number of subjects, President Donald Trump’s recently-announced plans to accept a luxury 747 private jet from the State of Qatar, a hereditary absolute Persian Gulf monarchy who has flitted in and out of favorability with the United States and its neighbors in recent years over Qatar’s widespread engagement with and in some cases support for terrorist groups like Hamas:

BROWN: I want to…have you weigh in on this, this plane from Qatar, this luxury jet and President Trump saying that he wants to accept it. As you well know, there is all this controversy over his plan to accept it as a gift from that nation. It’s drawing backlash even from some Republicans and MAGA allies like Laura Loomer and Ben Shapiro. Where do you stand on that decision?

HURD: I have serious concerns with this so-called gift from the government of Qatar. Security concerns, ethical concerns, using this used airplane. But it’s also a gift from a government that supports terrorist organizations like Hamas. So, if there were a Democratic president that was accepting a gift like this, we’d be outraged. I think it’s something that we should look at carefully and I have definitely serious concerns with this gift.

BROWN: And what do you make of the fact that now the Trump administration is saying, well, actually it’s going to go to a department, DOD, State Department, it’s really going to gift — a gift to the department. Does that assuage your concerns at all?

HURD: It’s six of one half a dozen of the other, I’m still concerned with this gift. Again, there’s ethical concerns that I think still remain, but there’s also security concerns. Why are we accepting a gift from this — a used airplane that’s 13 years old from a government that is aligned with individuals and organizations that are hostile to our interest in the Middle East? It just makes me concerned fundamentally…

The offer of a $400 million luxury airplane to Trump for his use both during and after his presidency has no precedent and would seem to be the biggest violation of the emoluments clause in the U.S. Constitution that expressly prohibits taking gifts from foreign nations in history. But the administration counters that the deal has been vetted and approved by Attorney General Pam Bondi, and since the plane would change hands first to the government and then to Trump’s presidential library it’s technically not a gift to Trump personally.

But as NBC News explains, there’s a problem with that easy breezy vetting of an offer so problematic on its face:

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, sent a new letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking how she came to a conclusion that the Qatari gift of a $400 million jet to Trump would be “legally permissible” and pressing her to provide the committee with information about whether the Justice Department determined there were no potential conflicts of interest.

In the letter, provided first to NBC News, Durbin asks Bondi if she recused herself from decision-making related to the matter because Bondi previously worked as a lobbyist for Qatar.

“There are serious questions about whether you should have recused yourself from this matter,” Durbin writes in the letter, noting that Bondi “did not list the State of Qatar as a conflict of interest on your Senate Judiciary Questionnaire, despite serving as a lobbyist for this foreign government prior to your confirmation as Attorney General.”

Is it possible that the reported $115,000 a month Qatar used to pay Attorney General Pam Bondi to lobby for them in Congress might have influenced her trouble-free signoff of the gifting of a $400 million plane to Donald Trump? No honest person would argument it’s not, which is why as Senator Dick Durban says Bondi should have recused herself from this decision. Since she didn’t, in an administration more interested in preventing crimes than committing them it would logically be the Federal Bureau of Investigation looking into whether this conflict of interest rose to the level of a criminal matter.

But as Mother Jones reported yesterday…

In a curious twist during his confirmation process, Kash Patel failed to disclose significant personal financial information until after the Senate hearing in January on his nomination to become FBI director. Consequently, one peculiar item listed on his financial disclosure form received no attention during that hearing: Patel’s work as a consultant for the embassy of Qatar. On this document, Patel did not specify what he did for Qatar or how much he was paid…

Patel is just one of several top Trump administration aides who have had financial ties to this Arab monarchy. Susan Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, worked for a lobbying firm that represented Qatar. Attorney General Pam Bondi lobbied for the Qataris. Mike Huckabee, now US Ambassador to Israel, was paid $50,000 to visit Qatar in 2018. Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, also has pocketed money from Qatar. In 2023, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund bought the Park Lane Hotel from Witkoff’s company in a $623 million deal. The Trump Organization itself recently struck a deal to develop a luxury golf resort in Qatar. And now Qatar is considering handing as a gift to Trump a jumbo airliner worth about $400 million for Trump to use as Air Force One.

It’s easy to understand why the Trump administration’s acceptance of a 747 from a Persian Gulf monarchy for basically his personal lifetime enjoyment is a problem for Rep. Jeff Hurd, like it should be for anyone with the vaguest sense of integrity. But the problem appears to go well beyond just the offer of the jet, and raises basic conflict of interest questions about Trump’s Cabinet officials who were on the payroll of the same Persian Gulf monarchy to the tune of millions of dollars. Has Qatar prepaid for support at the highest levels of the Trump administration?

If Jeff Hurd’s concerns end with the jet, it could be because he doesn’t have the courage to ask the questions that really matter.

Consider this an opportunity to prove us wrong.