As Trump Racks Up Corrupt Deals, Kaine & Colleagues File Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to Block $3.5 Billion in Arms Sales to Qatar and the UAE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Brian Schatz (D-HI), all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) filed four joint resolutions of disapproval (JRD) to block a $1.9 billion arms sale to Qatar and three arms sales—totaling $1.6 billion—to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as President Donald Trump racks up corrupt deals with those countries. The Senate is required to vote on JRDs.

The introductions come after Qatar offered to gift President Trump a $400 million luxury Boeing 747 jumbo jet; an investment firm backed by the Emiratis announced that it would use a stablecoin issued by a crypto company directly backed by the Trump family to facilitate a $2 billion investment in the Binance cryptocurrency exchange; and after the Trump Organization signed a $5.5 billion golf course and real estate deal with Dar Global and Qatari Diar, a firm established by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.

“Everywhere I go in Virginia, I hear about how worried folks are about price hikes because of President Trump’s tariffs and the massive cuts he’s trying to implement on basic government services, including Medicaid. Meanwhile, he’s hatching secret plans with corrupt foreign governments to enrich himself with crypto deals, golf courses, and a luxury plane?” said Kaine. “I’m glad to be working with my colleagues to force votes on legislation challenging arms sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to make it clear that bribing an American president is one of the fastest ways to poison your relationship with the United States. Countries around the world should take notice.”

The JRDs would block the following sales:

• A $1.9 billion arm sale to Qatar, which would include:
  • Eight MQ-9B Armed Drones and associated equipment, including 200 JDAM tail kits, 300 500-lb bombs, and 110 Hellfire II missiles.
• Three separate arms sales totaling $1.6 billion to the UAE, which would include the sales of:
  • Six CH-47F Block II Chinook helicopters and associated equipment, valued at $1.32 billion;
  • F-16 aircraft components, accessories, and defense services, valued at $130 million;
  • Spare and repair parts to support the UAE’s fleet of AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawk, and CH-47 Chinook aircraft, and other logistics and program support, valued at $150 million.

Full text of the Qatar JRD is available here.

Full text of the UAE JRDs are available here (Chinook helicopters), here (aircraft equipment), and here (helicopter equipment).

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