‘Not a Fan!’ Ted Cruz Warns Trump Not to Be Fooled by Qatar’s Flattery

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned President Donald Trump not to be fooled by Qatar’s gift of a luxury jumbo jet to be used as Air Force One on Tuesday, flagging the regime’s affinity for backing “theocratic lunatics.”

The idea of accepting gift from the Qatari royal family has been widely panned by liberals and conservatives, with a YouGov poll on Monday showing a strong margin of American voters – 47-30 – were opposed to Trump accepting the jet.

So far the president has managed to sidestep confronting criticism from even his most loyal supporters, including Laura Loomer to Ben Shapiro, and lambasted Democrats as “world class losers” for speaking out. But now even Republican lawmakers are raising concerns about the deal.

Appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday to speak to host Andrew Ross Sorkin, Cruz added his voice to the chorus of those in opposition:

Well, listen, I’m not a fan of Qatar. I think they have a really disturbing pattern of funding theocratic lunatics who want to murder us, funding Hamas and Hezbollah and that’s that’s a real problem.

I also think that the plane poses significant espionage and surveillance problems. So we’ll see how this issue plays out, but I certainly have concerns.

Watch above via CNBC.