• President Donald Trump is poised to accept a jet from Qatar to be used as Air Force One.
• ABC News reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi signed off on the potential deal.
• Trump is receiving pushback from some of his most fervent MAGA loyalists over the issue.

President Donald Trump may soon be receiving a luxury jet from Qatar, and even some of MAGA's most faithful are against it.

Multiple outlets on Sunday reported that the Qatari royal family is preparing to give the Trump administration a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet, to be used as Air Force One in Trump's second term before being donated to his presidential library. Though the exact value of the specific jet in question — which is 13 years old, ABC News reported — isn't clear, a new 747-8 jumbo jet fetches a whopping $400 million.

Frequent Trump critics such as Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have criticized the gift, but in a notable break, some of Trump's most ardent MAGA loyalists have also criticized the potential plane deal.

"I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him," Laura Loomer, a conservative activist and longtime Trump ally, wrote on X on Sunday. "But, I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400 million 'gift' from jihadists in suits."

"This is really going to be such a stain on the admin if this is true. I'm so disappointed," she added.

Trump all but confirmed the news in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

"So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA," Trump wrote.

Meanwhile, Qatar's media attaché to the US, Ali Al-Ansari, told BI in a statement that the transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is "currently under consideration." The matter "remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made," Al-Ansari said.

Some other Trump supporters echoed Loomer's concerns.

Mark Levin, a radio host and Trump backer, took to X to accuse Qatar of spreading "anti-American" propaganda.

"Their jet and all the other things they are buying in our country does not provide them with the cover they seek," he wrote on the social media platform.

He later wrote "Ditto" in response to Loomer's post.

Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro also weighed in on the controversy during a Monday episode of his self-titled podcast.

"Taking sacks of goodies from people who support Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, al-Jazeera, all the rest, that's not America first. Like, please define America first in a way that says you should take sacks of cash from the Qatari royals who are behind al-Jazeera," he said, adding, "If you want President Trump to succeed, this kind of skeezy stuff needs to stop."

There's been little pushback among GOP lawmakers — for now at least.

But Rep. Warren Davidson, a conservative Republican from Ohio, seemingly alluded to the situation on X without specifically naming Trump.

"I recall trying to rally support for a thorough investigation of the Clinton Foundation," he wrote. "It seemed odd that a Secretary of State / Senator / First Lady / Presidential candidate could collect hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign governments with no corruption. The appearance of corruption alone screams, 'Bad idea!'"

He continued: "My views have not changed. At a minimum, 'Bad idea!'"

And on Fox News, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky questioned the legality of the Trump administration accepting the Qatari plane, saying it's "not worth the appearance of impropriety."

Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott, a fervent Trump supporter, also voiced his concern about the safety of Trump flying on a plane from a country that has helped fund the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The news of the plane came ahead of Trump's planned visit to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates this week.

Legal experts told Business Insider the reported gift raises both ethical and constitutional concerns.

"Outside of the legal context, it is fair to ask whether the acceptance of this gift could give rise to an apparent conflict of interest or corruption," Jessica Levinson, a law professor and the director of the Public Service Institute at Loyola Law School, told BI.

The gift could also be a potential violation of the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause, which prohibits government officials from accepting gifts or benefits from foreign parties without consent from Congress.

Trump again defended the move on Monday, telling reporters the jet wouldn't be a gift to him personally, but to the Department of Defense.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House counsel David Warrington determined that gifting the jet would be "legally permissible" if it is transferred to Trump's presidential library before the end of his second term, ABC News said.

In 2019, during Trump's first term, Bondi lobbied on behalf of the Qatari government.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement to BI: "Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump's Administration is committed to full transparency."

• Elon Musk is set to dial back his work with DOGE in the coming weeks.
• The White House DOGE office's push to pare down the federal workforce will continue.
• DOGE is set to roll out a key visa effort as it also faces litigation over its work.

Elon Musk may be winding down his work with the Department of Government Efficiency, but that doesn't mean the cost-cutting task force will be ending any time soon.

Musk, the chief executive of both Tesla and SpaceX, announced on Tuesday that he'd be reducing his presence at the White House DOGE office down to one or two days a week so he can focus more of his time on Tesla — which during the first quarter of 2025 saw its earnings plunge 71% year over year.

"There's been some blowback for the time that I've been spending in government with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE," Musk told investors during Tesla's earnings call Tuesday.

Musk added that, although he will be cutting down his time at DOGE starting in May, he will likely continue working with DOGE for "probably the remainder of the president's term, just to make sure that the waste and fraud that we stop does not come roaring back."

In the three months since President Donald Trump established the initiative, unofficially led by Musk, it has worked quickly to reduce government spending and gut the federal workforce.

In its attempt to fulfill its stated purpose of rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse, DOGE has targeted nearly every federal agency.

But DOGE's work is far from over, and in some ways, it's still just getting started.

DOGE-driven RIFs and agency consolidation will continue to reshape the federal workforce

For weeks, Musk's work with DOGE has generated waves of controversy, with many Americans supportive of reform efforts but less willing to back the task force's more aggressive actions in reorienting government departments and agencies.

DOGE has so far set in motion thousands of layoffs.

As of early April, the White House DOGE office's work has led to over 216,000 firings, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The cuts will likely continue.

The IRS could lose nearly a quarter of its workforce, according to The New York Times. There's ongoing litigation regarding DOGE's moves to shut down the Institute of Peace, whose funding is appropriated by Congress. And thousands of jobs could be cut across the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services this year.

Efforts to overhaul and eliminate offices within the State and Justice departments have also been outlined by the administration, moving them closer to the ideological standards set forth by Trump.

Even though Musk will dial back his presence in Washington, his mission of a smaller government isn't leaving the DOGE office.

DOGE has plenty of fights left in court

The legal challenges against many of DOGE's actions — which make up a chunk of the dozens of lawsuits filed against the Trump administration — are just ramping up.

One lawsuit that's likely to have a major impact on DOGE's future — and could determine just how much transparency DOGE is required to give — was filed by the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in February.

CREW's suit demands that DOGE provide greater transparency into its operations, alleging that DOGE is breaking federal law by not disclosing its records under the Freedom of Information Act.

Last week, the federal judge overseeing the case issued a preliminary injunction granting CREW a partial victory.

Judge Christopher Cooper found that despite DOGE's arguments to the contrary, DOGE acts like a typical government agency and thus is likely subject to federal laws mandating records disclosure. Cooper ordered DOGE to provide CREW with the documents and answers it had requested, including internal emails between DOGE and the Office of Management and Budget.

Cooper also ordered DOGE's official administrator, Amy Gleason, and the leader of DOGE's daily operations, Steven Davis, to provide depositions within 24 days.

A number of other lawsuits have sought to hamstring DOGE's power over the federal bureaucracy.

In another ongoing case, the Center for Taxpayer Rights, along with several other groups, sued the Internal Revenue Service alleging that DOGE had illegally accessed sensitive taxpayer data and systems at the IRS. The outcome of the case could determine just how much authority DOGE has as it seeks to access the personal data of Americans held by federal agencies.

And in National Treasury Employees Union v. Vought — which was filed by the union after the administration fired Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees — a temporary injunction is currently in place blocking the administration from disbanding the agency.

DOGE's next big move may be revenue-generation

The White House DOGE Office is currently developing a system where special immigration visas dubbed as "gold cards" will be issued by the US, replacing the EB-5 visa.

The cost for each card? $5 million.

It's part of what the Trump administration has outlined as a way for highly affluent non-US residents to work in the country and gain a pathway to citizenship.

"They'll have to go through vetting, of course, to make sure they're wonderful world-class global citizens," Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said in February. "The president can give them a green card, and they can invest in America, and we can use that money to reduce our deficit."

The New York Times reported that Musk is working on the software, with the effort being headed by DOGE staffers Marko Elez and Edward Coristine.

Lutnick said the gold card would be unveiled sometime in the coming days.

Its implementation could serve as a lasting legacy of Musk's DOGE tenure.

The White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.