Donald Trump is facing a furious backlash — not from Democrats, but from his own MAGA base.
His decision to accept a luxury jet from Qatar — reportedly for use as a future Air Force One-style aircraft — has sparked outrage among some of his most loyal conservative allies. They’re calling the deal unethical, shady, and even illegal.
“This is not a gift. It’s a bribe,” said Batya Ungar-Sargon on Newsmax, slamming the deal as a clear conflict of interest.
Even longtime Trump defenders are now sounding the alarm.
“I think if we switched the names to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, we’d all be freaking out on the right,” said Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro on his podcast Monday. He called the deal “indefensible” and tied it to what he sees as a troubling pattern of “influence peddling,” including Trump’s crypto sweepstakes.
“President Trump promised to drain the swamp,” Shapiro said. “This is not, in fact, draining the swamp.”
Conservative activist Laura Loomer, one of Trump’s most hardcore supporters, didn’t hold back either.
“This is really going to be such a stain on the admin if this is true,” she wrote on X. “And I say that as someone who would take a bullet for Trump. I’m so disappointed.”
Fox News host Mark Levin reposted her comment with a simple: “Ditto.”
For many on the right, the outrage is about more than just the optics — it’s about who the jet is coming from. Qatar has long-standing ties to Hamas, the militant group behind terror attacks on Israel. Though Qatar claimed last year it would expel Hamas officials, critics aren’t convinced.
Andrew McCarthy, a senior editor at National Review, said there’s no excuse for accepting such a deal.
“Indefensible,” McCarthy wrote. “The president and his flacks again demonstrate that they don’t grasp the concepts of constitutional duty and conflicts of interest.”
He also pointed to Trump’s other recent controversies, including the family’s crypto promotion, as more evidence of blurred ethical lines.
Conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson took it a step further, warning that the legal risk could come back to bite Trump.
“I think [Pam Bondi] is opening Donald Trump up to legal trouble later,” Erickson said on his show, referring to the U.S. attorney general who reportedly signed off on the jet deal. Bondi previously worked as a paid lobbyist for Qatar.
Later, Erickson posted on X that the deal had sparked widespread concern among Trump voters.
“Even a lot of Trump supporters were not thrilled about the Qatar plane gift,” he wrote. Then he noted that his timeline was suddenly being flooded with suspicious pro-Trump accounts defending the move: “A lot of small accounts I’ve never interacted with before are flooding my timeline insisting it is a great idea.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s team is trying to control the damage. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning and claimed the deal was a government-to-government transaction, saying it would be “in full compliance with the law.”
When host Brian Kilmeade asked whether Qatar might expect something in return, Leavitt brushed it off: “President Trump only works with the interest of the American public in mind.”
He then pivoted to ask her about Mother’s Day.
So far, most major right-wing media outlets — especially TV — have downplayed the story. Fox News ran a headline focused not on the jet, but on Trump’s angry reaction to an ABC reporter who dared to ask about it.
But the outrage is not going away.
The Qatar jet deal has cracked open something rarely seen in MAGA media — full-throated dissent from the base. For a man known for commanding loyalty, Trump now finds himself facing open revolt from the people who once defended him at all costs.
