While defending Trump accepting a luxury jet from Qatar, Newsmax host says “I would definitely criticize Joe Biden if he cut the exact same deal”
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From the May 13, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Finnerty
ROB FINNERTY (HOST): Once again, the current plane is almost 40 years old. To put that into perspective again, FDR, if he flew around on a 40 year-old plane at the start of the Second World War, he'd be cruising the friendly skies in the Wright brothers glider from the very first flight in North Carolina. It was 1903. Do the math. If Spirit or some other low cost airline was offering really cheap tickets, but the catch was you had to fly on a 40 year-old plane, would you still book that flight? I doubt it. I wouldn't. My producer Pedro would. He loves Spirit. So that's where we are right now.
Donald Trump posting on Truth Social. The Defense Department getting a gift free of charge, a 747 to replace the 40-year-old Air Force One temporarily in a very public transaction. But the crooked Democrats insist that we pay top dollar for a plane. Anybody can do that. The DEMs are world class losers. Take a listen to the president yesterday.
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FINNERTY: OK. And even Republicans are so jazzed up about this. Ari Fleischer tweeting that Air Force One should be American through and through. It shouldn't pass through foreign hands, and it shouldn't be a gift from a king. Don't do it.
My goodness, Democrats are suddenly so upset at even the hint of a quid pro quo because of something called the Emoluments Clause. Public officials can't accept gifts, but this plane would not be a gift to Donald Trump. It would be a gift to the United States.
I will say, I would definitely criticize Joe Biden if he cut the exact same deal, and I would criticize Joe Biden if he was about to get a $400 million plane from Qatar to fly around for a couple of years, then donate to his presidential library that no one would go to. I would definitely criticize that move. That would not go unnoticed by this show.
But the left never seemed to care when Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of a Ukrainian energy company when his dad was vice president. That didn't seem to bother anyone on the left.