Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has long been a critic who is vocally opposed to all things President Donald Trump.
Given that, it should be little surprise that the longtime Democrat is pulling every lever and flipping every switch he can to prevent the president from getting his Air Force One replacement.
With aviation titan Boeing lagging behind an order for an updated Air Force One, the Trump administration has explored possibly taking up the Qatari government’s offer of a private plane to use while those new Air Force Ones get built.
The possibility of Trump accepting that Qatari plane (which will obviously be gutted and retrofitted for security concerns) has caused all sorts of outcry from Democrats and the left — including Schumer.
In fact, the minority leader isn’t just complaining about this looming prospect.
Charles Ellis Schumer is fuming mad and making actual senate moves to try and thwart Trump from having his Air Force One replacement.
According to The Hill, Schumer has introduced a bill that would disallow any foreign-owned aircraft from serving as Air Force One.
Specifically, the bill seeks to ensure that taxpayer money won’t go into retrofitting the plane.
Should the jet from Qatar become Air Force One?
The bill, called the “Presidential Airlift Security Act,” per Reuters, is obviously targeting Trump’s potential usage of the $400 million Qatari plane.
Schumer took to X to complain about it all — and announce that new bill:
Trump taking this Qatari plane is a national security threat and a bribe.
And I’m introducing legislation to stop the Defense Department from spending a single penny on it. pic.twitter.com/SewFsBqog8
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 20, 2025
The New York senator called Trump’s acceptance of the Qatari plane “a national security threat and a bribe,” though it’s worth noting that if it were actually those things, Schumer probably wouldn’t need a bill to circumvent it.
One thing worth noting: Schumer claimed that retrofitting the Qatari plane to look for “listening devices” is “going to cost more than the planes that are being built” by Boeing.
But as Fox Business noted, the cost of completely gutting and reassembling the Qatari plane would cost roughly a billion dollars.
The aforementioned Boeing contract is for $3.9 billion, so no, retrofitting the Qatari plane will likely not cost more than waiting for the Boeing planes.
Getting dollar figures wrong is hardly Schumer’s only issue of late. In fact, the embattled minority leader has found himself in a bit of a “no man’s land” of late.
Republicans have never been especially fond of Schumer or his rhetoric, which is to be expected given the deep partisan divide in American politics.
But Schumer has also drawn the ire of his own party recently, apparently for not being Democratic enough.
(It is worth noting that a number of Schumer’s fellow Democratic senators are also opposing this plane. Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, for example, introduced legislation that would condemn “any acceptance of Presidential aircraft, or any other substantial gift, from a foreign government,” the Hill reported.)
It’s put the New York senator in an untenable situation — and it’s unclear if this new bill targeting Trump will help Schumer with either faction.
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