Republicans dodge, laugh off questions about Trump’s gift plane from Qatar
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(WASHINGTON) — Republicans were on Capitol Hill Monday night as they dodged or laughed off ABC News’ exclusive reporting that President Donald Trump was considering accepting a luxury jet as a gift from the Qatari government to potentially use as Air Force One.
While several senators avoided questions or made jokes, few were willing to give a full-throated defense of the proposed gift.
Like most Republicans, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., initially said she didn’t know enough about the story to comment but called it “an interesting one.”
When ABC News told her that Trump intended to use the gifted plane as Air Force One, she broke into laughter. “It might make me consider the appropriateness of that? Yes,” she said.
Asked if she had security concerns about its use as Air Force One, she broke out laughing and said, “Well, they better sweep that plane from front to back.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., made a tongue-in-cheek comment of his own when asked about security concerns.
“Well, I think it’d be better if it were a big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America,” he said.
Majority Leader John Thune said he needed more information on the reports before he could make an appropriate assessment. “I don’t know enough about it yet and I don’t know that it’s — I don’t know if there’s — any offer. I’m sure if and when we have more information, we’ll sort it out,” Thune said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to comment, saying he didn’t have enough information. “I’m not going to comment on it,” Johnson said, adding, “I haven’t seen all the details about it.”
When asked about the price tag of the potential gift — an estimated $400 million – Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., sidestepped the issue.
“I think we ought to follow the law, whatever that is,” he said. “Well, France gave us the Statue of Liberty,” Kennedy told reporters.
(WASHINGTON) — Democratic lawmakers are “urgently” calling for the White House to issue a full disclosure of financial transactions leading up to President Donald Trump’s sudden pause on a sweeping set of tariffs earlier this month, raising concerns that people close to the president “potentially violated federal ethics and insider trading laws” surrounding his actions.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., sent a letter on Monday, signed by a group of 23 other Democrats, to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, calling for a commitment from all senior White House and executive branch employees to “expeditiously” transmit all reports related to their securities transactions since the start of Trump’s term to the Office of Government Ethics, requesting, too, that all of this mandatory reporting be made public.
The letter, shared first with ABC News, also asks that any extensions granted to White House employees related to their accounting reports become public, noting that this was practiced during the first Trump administration.
“We are concerned that no periodic transaction reports have been posted on the OGE database for White House officials’ individual disclosures at any point since President Trump took office on January 20, 2025,” Schiff and Levin wrote.
“There is reason to doubt that not a single senior White House official or employee has made any financial transactions triggering a periodic transaction report since the start of the Administration,” the letter continued. “As an important point of reference, during the first Trump Administration, periodic transaction reports filed by senior White House officials were made publicly available on the OGE’s disclosure database, as required by the Ethics in Government Act and the STOCK Act.”
The White House did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.
Hours before Trump announced he was rolling back tariffs to 10% to all countries except China, which sent the stock market soaring, he posted on Truth Social: “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” and “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.”
Stocks were down the morning before Trump’s Truth Social post. Nasdaq soared 12.1% at close, the index’s largest single-day gain since 2021, while the Dow jumped 7.8%, its biggest one-day increase in five years.
“Newly identified data raises concerns about potential violations of federal ethics and insider trading laws by individuals close to the President with access to non-public information,” Schiff and Levin’s letter reads.
Trump has said he hasn’t engaged in insider trading himself — but that he couldn’t definitively claim that members of his administration have not. “I can commit to myself, that’s all I can commit to,” Trump told reporters on Friday, when asked whether he could assure Americans that no one in his administration was insider trading with information about trade deals coming together.
Trump said he hires “honorable people” but said, “I have thousands of people that work for me, but I can’t imagine anybody doing that.”
The Democrats requested a response from Wiles no later than May 9, 2025, and for a “detailed plan” for how the administration plans to address any officials and employees who may have failed to file required disclosures from the start of the administration.
“By failing to take these steps, the Administration would be withholding critical information from the American people regarding potential violations of federal ethics and insider trading laws. We look forward to reviewing all required reports and disclosures,” Schiff and Levin wrote.
“Senior White House officials have influence over or become witting of consequential policy decisions that can have market moving impacts,” the letter said. “It is critical that such officials adhere to all applicable ethics, conflict of interest, and disclosure requirements.”
“The American public deserves nothing less than full transparency, particularly in the context of the harm done to pension funds and retirement savings as a result of the President’s erratic trade policy,” it continued
The letter was signed by Sens. Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren, Jeffrey Merkley and Elissa Slotkin, as well as Reps. Brad Sherman, Brad Schneider, Angie Craig, Jerry Nadler, Rashida Tlaib, Cleo Fields, Yassamin Ansari, Seth Magaziner, Pramila Jayapal, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Nanette Diaz Barragán, Mark DeSaulnier, Madeleine Dean and Delia Ramirez.
Schiff had previously written to Wiles and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer over the rollbacks on Trump’s tariffs. In that letter, sent with Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., Schiff asked for an investigation into potential conflicts of interest. Schiff has not received a response from Wiles following his request, a spokesperson for the senator told ABC News.
Office of the President of Ukraine via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump reflected on the dramatic meeting he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inside St. Peter’s Basilica just before the pope’s funeral on Saturday, when asked by ABC News anchor and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran in an exclusive interview Tuesday in the Oval Office.
Noting the striking photograph of the two men “talking peace” that “went around the world,” Moran asked Trump, “Take us into that moment.”
“The moment was a moment of solace in a sense, because — tremendous numbers of people are dying. A lot of his people are dying,” Trump answered. “They’re being killed, and I feel very badly about it,” he said.
It was the first time Trump and Zelenskyy had met face-to-face since their heated argument in the Oval Office in February.
At the time, Zelenskyy contended the Russian president needed stronger pushback from Ukraine’s allies.
“I really count on your strong position to stop Putin,” Zelenskyy said to Trump at the February meeting.
Moran noted that Trump has since appeared to have changed his thinking about Putin’s intentions, bringing up what Trump said in a social media post after his conversation with Zelenskyy in St. Peter’s.
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, in cities and towns, over the last few days,” he said in the post. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war. He’s just tapping me along.”
Trump repeated those comments in the interview.
“It’s possible. Yeah, that’s possible. Sure,” he said. “He could be tapping me along a little bit. I would say that he would like to stop the war.”
When Moran asked if Trump truly believed Putin wanted to end the war even with the continued attacks, Trump claimed that negotiations would have been much worse under a different president.
“You think Vladimir Putin wants peace?” Moran asked.
“I think he does, yes. I think he does,” he answered.
“Still?” Moran said.
“I think because of me … ” Trump continued.
“Even with the raining missiles on …?” Moran asked.
“I think he really– his– his– his dream was to take over the whole country. I think because of me, he’s not gonna do that,” Trump answered.
Asked if he trusts Putin, Trump said, “I don’t trust a lot of people. But I do think this. I think that he … let’s say he respects me,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is heading to Iowa Tuesday, fueling speculation that he is mounting a bid for the White House in 2028.
On Tuesday evening, Buttigieg — who served in President Joe Biden’s Cabinet as secretary of the Department of Transportation — will make his in-person, public post-administration debut by headlining a town hall with progressive veterans’ group VoteVets Action Fund in Cedar Rapids.
His visit comes after he didn’t rule out a presidential bid during an interview on Tuesday.
In a Substack Live interview with independent journalist Anand Giridharadas on Tuesday, Buttigieg discussed his thought process regarding running for office broadly, and the potential of running for president in 2028 more specifically.
Before making such a decision Buttigieg says he has to “assess the office and what it calls for” as well as “assess what I bring to the table.” He said he’s employed that process to decide to run for other positions.
“… There are times I follow that process and decided to run. And there are times I followed that process and decided not to run. And the process can lead you to surprising places,” he said.
Still, he said he is a “long way off” from a decision.
Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, first rose to national prominence when he ran in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. During Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign — and later, Vice President Kamala Harris’ own campaign after Biden left the race — Buttigieg served as a key campaign surrogate and was floated as a potential running mate for Harris, who ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Now Buttigieg is set to speak in Iowa — a state where its caucus often serves as the earliest indication of how America’s voters will choose their primary candidates.
Major General Paul Eaton, chairman of VoteVets Action Fund, is expected to introduce Buttigieg as “a fellow veteran and someone who understands what is at stake for all Americans,” according to remarks first shared with ABC News.
Eaton is expected to say that the reason the group has chosen to hold its town hall in Iowa is to reach those “on the ground, in the heartland, in a so-called red state, talking not just about what has happened but what we can do in response and how we can continue to put pressure on Trump but also the members of Congress who refuse to do their jobs.”
And in the first 100 days or so of President Donald Trump’s administration, Buttigieg has taken his message far and wide. He has launched his own Substack, appeared on numerous podcasts and been a regular voice on cable news.
“Pete has always had a ‘go everywhere and talk to everyone’ mindset. This is an opportunity to hear from the men and women who served our country about challenges they’re facing in the chaos of the current administration and what’s needed for a more secure future, outside of the Washington media bubble and podcast studios,” a Buttigieg spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
But now Buttigieg is taking his vision out on the open road. And according to a spokesperson, isn’t stopping with Iowa.
“You can expect to see him continuing this conversation with Americans across the country,” the spokesperson said.
And he subtly hinted at this expanded tour during the conclusion of his appearance on Sirius XM’s Smartless podcast, hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett, remarking: “I’ll be around. I’ll be out there.”
This trip comes as other Democrats whose names have circulated as potential presidential material are making public appearances in important voting states. Both Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Walz will be featured guests at the South Carolina’s Democratic Party’s statewide conference at the end of the month. Walz will also appear at the California Democrats’ convention that same weekend.
Moore and Walz have publicly denied plans for a 2028 presidential run.
ABC New’s Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
