‘The View’ Cohosts Slam Trump’s Qatar Plane Deal as ‘Illegal’ & ‘National Security Risk’

Amanda Bell May 12, 2025, 11:50 am

Whoopi Goldberg, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin on The View — ABC

Over the weekend, Donald Trump defended his decision to accept a $400 million luxury plane from Qatar’s royal family to be used as Air Force One and then as his own personal plane after he leaves office. Trump said it was a “gift, free of charge” and his acceptance would be “transparent.” Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the Qatari government wouldn’t expect something in return.

On Monday’s (May 12) show, The View‘s cohosts cried foul about the matter, calling it “illegal” and “a national security risk” for the United States.

The first to speak on the matter was moderator Whoopi Goldberg, who channeled her valley girl voice to introduce the subject before saying, “I’ve known several presidents [and on their birthday] they’re not allowed to take a dumb little present.”

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Sunny Hostin was the next to speak on the matter and brought her experience as a lawyer and a federal government official to bear in her analysis. “When you work for the government, you take an oath under the Constitution to abide by the Constitution. And the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution basically says that a donation from a foreign government — or really it’s over any donation — it forbids us officials from accepting gifts or other things of value from foreign officials without congressional approval. And in fact, the rules are, if you are working for the government, you cannot accept anything of value of over $20. For less, you have to disclose it …. So this is completely illegal.”

When Alyssa Farah Griffin noted that it was a “violation of ethics rules,” Goldberg interrupted to summon up laughter from the crowd before Griffin could continue. “It’s also a huge national security risk,” Griffin then said. “You’re going to have the Qatari government know all the ins and outs, security protocols, technology of the plane that houses the U.S. president, and I would remind people, the Qataris are not our friends. They shelter Hamas terrorists, they protect their money, they allow them to carry out their terrorist activities.”

Sara Haines also pointed to the contrary interests of the Qatari government, saying, “That’s the part that got me the most, because beyond the obvious parts of the ethics and the Constitution, which are all inconvenient at this moment, but it’s the fact that Qatar finances a lot of these wars. We have an active war going on right now in the Middle East.” She added that Leavitt’s indication there’d be no strings attached was false; “I don’t think you get a $400 million gift without expectation.”

For Ana Navarro, it’s “the hypocrisy” that got under her skin. “Look, these laws only mean something if there’s somebody there to enforce them. We have oversight committees in Congress, but they are doing nothing to oversee the blatant conflicts of interest that Trump and his family are engaged in and so the hypocritical Republicans in Congress who put Hunter, Biden and everybody else and who should rightfully know be scrutinizing these type of ethical questions are just like, I don’t know, out to lunch, out to pasture.”

She went on to note other examples of conflicts of interest that have gone unchecked saying, “The $40 million from Amazon to Melania for a documentary of her life… the way that the Trump children are running around the world making profit out of their name, the $2 billion invested by the Saudis into Jared Kushner’s venture, which he denies — all of those things, one after the other, in front of our faces without there being so much as an eyebrow raised by the hypocritical, cowardly, rubber-stamping Republicans in Congress.”

Griffin then added, “I was just reminded that, when I was in government, if we were meeting with other heads of state, you would actually be told, ‘Don’t even take a pen from them, because it likely has surveillance.’ This does not seem like a good idea.”

The View, weekdays, 11 a.m. ET, ABC