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Senate Republicans on Wednesday objected to a request from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for the Senate’s unanimous approval of his bill preventing President Donald Trump from spending any more government funds to upgrade the luxury jet Qatar gave him to use as Air Force One.
Schumer asked the Senate for unanimous consent of his bill “so Americans don’t have to pay to upgrade Trump’s luxury jet when he already has access to planes that are safer and easier to maintain.”
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) objected, saying Schumer was only trying “to make a political point,” and complained the wording of Schumer’s measure would also prevent the U.S. from upgrading another plane that could be used to carry the president in the event of a nuclear war.
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Schumer made his unanimous consent request knowing Republicans would send someone to block it.
Trump solicited the gift plane because he wanted something nicer than the jets the government used to transport him, but it needed $400 million worth of security upgrades that apparently still didn’t make it safe enough. The president flew home from a NATO summit in Turkey this month on one of the old planes, apparently because the new one lacks safety features such as missile defenses.
When HuffPost asked Trump this week why he was flying on a plane without missile defenses, he said he was sending it “to have it be maxed out.” It’s not clear what he meant.
