Turns Out Voters Don’t Like Presidents Who Take Foreign Bribes
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The Department of Defense announced on Wednesday that it officially accepted the Qatari government’s offer of a luxury jumbo jet. Prior to this, President Donald Trump’s plans to accept the bribe inspired a fierce backlash, even from some Republicans. And despite Trump defending his choice to accept what is clearly a bribe, most voters aren’t buying it.
According to a new poll conducted by Civiqs for Daily Kos, 55% of registered voters say it would be unethical for Trump to accept the $400 million jet, which he claims will temporarily serve as the new Air Force One before reportedly being transferred into the ownership of his future presidential library and made available for his private use after leaving office.
Just 19% of voters say Trump accepting the jet would be ethical, while another 22% don’t see it as an issue of ethics. The poll was conducted before the Department of Defense officially accepted the bribe.
Democrats in the poll are overwhelmingly critical, with 92% saying that accepting the gift would be unethical. But independents—a key swing bloc that appears to be souring on Trump—are skeptical too: 55% agree it crosses an ethical line.
Even here, Republicans are the most forgiving, with 34% saying the dinner-for-donors scheme is aboveboard, compared with just 1% of Democrats who think the same.
Even among some of Trump’s core groups, support is soft. Forty-five percent of rural voters, 51% of non-college-educated voters, and 52% of Southerners say it would be unethical for Trump to accept the gift. In other words, this is a rare moment when even core parts of his base aren’t giving him a free pass, even if some of his GOP enablers in Congress still are.
This aligns with other polling on the issue. A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released Monday also found that most voters (62%) said the acceptance of a $400 million gift from the Qatari government “raises ethical concerns about corruption,” while just over a third (38%) echoed Trump and called the gift “a win for the U.S.”
That poll also showed more Republicans expressing concern: 40% said it raised concerns of corruption, while 60% bought Trump’s spin. By comparison, this new Civiqs/Daily Kos poll finds that only 15% of Republicans think accepting the jet would be unethical, while 41% say it would be ethical and 38% shrug it off as not even an issue of ethics.
The Civiqs/Daily Kos poll comes about a week after the White House confirmed Qatar had offered to donate a luxury Boeing 747-8. Trump has defended the idea as a no-brainer, saying he’d be “stupid” not to accept the jet, and he mocked Democrats for insisting taxpayers “pay TOP DOLLAR” instead.
But what Trump omits is that accepting the gift is blatantly unconstitutional. The emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution bans federal officials from accepting gifts, payments, or favors from foreign powers without Congress’s explicit approval. Congress has allowed some exceptions—gifts worth less than $480, for instance, can be retained by federal employees—but a multimillion-dollar jet is obviously not one of them.
No modern U.S. president has seriously challenged these limits—until Trump.
In another attack on basic ethics, Trump has also been profiting off a growing web of side hustles: Trump-branded Bibles and guitars, his $TRUMP meme coin, and a new family-backed crypto-mining venture. And voters don’t like this type of thing, either.
The same Civiqs/Daily Kos poll finds that just 56% of voters say it’s unethical for Trump to offer a private dinner to supporters who spent the most money on his $TRUMP cryptocurrency. Only 16% think it’s ethical.
Voters might be polarized on big issues, but most still know corruption when they see it. And while Trump’s base is willing to look the other way, the rest of the country isn’t so eager to pretend this is normal.
Democratic voters aren’t letting it slide—and if the rest of the electorate catches up, Trump may find the con is finally catching up to him.
Poll chart from Datawrapper. Post republished by permission from Daily Kos.