Poll: Most Americans think Qatar is trying to bribe Trump with luxury jet ‘gift'
Most Americans (54%) believe the government of Qatar is trying to bribe President Trump by giving his administration a luxury jet, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
A mere 25% of Americans think the opposite: that the free Qatari jet is not intended as a bribe.
The survey of 1,560 U.S. adults was conducted from May 22 to May 27, immediately after the Trump Administration officially accepted what may be the most lavish and expensive foreign gift in U.S. history: a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family, valued between $200 and $400 million, that Trump plans to use as Air Force One for the rest of his term and transfer to his presidential library foundation after leaving office.
Defending the move, Trump insisted earlier this month that only a 'stupid person' would 'turn down that kind of an offer.'
'I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, 'No, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane,'' the president told reporters. 'But it was — I thought it was a great gesture.'
The new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that most Americans disagree. A majority (51%) disapprove of Trump's decision to accept the jet; less than a third (32%) approve.
'I think if we switched the names to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, we'd all be freaking out on the right,' pro-Trump pundit Ben Shapiro said when the president first announced the deal. 'President Trump promised to drain the swamp. This is not, in fact, draining the swamp.'
Across the entire survey, Republicans are the only demographic group who think the jet is not a bribe attempt (54%) and approve of Trump accepting it (66%). Among Democrats, those numbers are just 6% and 5%, respectively; among independents, they are just 18% and 26%.
And the Qatari jet is not the only corruption concern or possible conflict of interest swirling around Trump's second term.
Emboldened by last year's Supreme Court ruling granting presidents immunity for their official actions, Trump has used his second stint in the Oval Office to openly enrich himself and advance his personal interests in ways that make the ethical complaints of his first term look quaint in comparison, experts say, while eliminating key protections against influence peddling and firing officials tasked with rooting out corruption.
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Trump granted a full and unconditional pardon to Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive who recently pleaded guilty to funding his extravagant lifestyle, including a $2 million yacht, with the Social Security, Medicare and federal income tax money he withheld from his employees' paychecks — and who was about to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution and go to prison for 18 months.
Initially, Walczak's pardon request was ignored. Then, less than three weeks after Walczak's mother attended a $1-million-per-person fundraising dinner at Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club, it was granted.
The new Yahoo News/YouGov poll was conducted before Walczak's pardon became public knowledge. But respondents were asked about another recent incident: Trump's decision to host an "intimate private dinner" for the top 220 anonymous investors in his cryptocurrency business, many of whom operate outside the U.S. — along with a 'Special VIP Tour' of the White House for the top 25 investors.
Though Trump once called cryptocurrency 'a scam,' he changed his mind on the campaign trail last year, eventually pledging to transform the United States into 'the crypto capital of the planet.' In September, he launched a cryptocurrency firm called World Liberty Financial with his sons; its paper value is now nearing $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. The crypto industry went on to spend tens of millions of dollars to help Trump win the 2024 election, then donated $18 million to his inauguration. Just before returning to the Oval Office, Trump started selling $TRUMP, a so-called meme coin — that is, a type of cryptocurrency 'based on an online joke or celebrity mascot' with no real use 'beyond speculation,' according to the New York Times. Investors in foreign countries, some of whom openly admit they want to influence the president, rushed to stock up.
At the same, the Trump administration disbanded a Justice Department unit dedicated to investigating cryptocurrency crimes; declared that meme coins are no longer subject to regulatory oversight; and agreed to pause a fraud case against a top crypto mogul who pumped $75 million into Trump tokens.
How do Americans feel about this arrangement? Not great. According to the poll, more than twice as many of them disapprove (49%) than approve (23%) of Trump and his family being involved in "a cryptocurrency business valued at around $1 billion at the same time the Trump administration has loosened cryptocurrency enforcement and regulations.'
And even more disapprove (53%) rather than approve (23%) of the private dinner Trump hosted last week for his memecoin investors.
Trump's crypto endeavors aren't particularly popular among Republicans, either: just 44% approve of last week's investor dinner and the overall business — compared, again, to the 66% who approve of the president accepting a free jet from Qatar.
Despite such data, Trump's recent corruption concerns haven't really changed how Americans perceive him.
Before asking about the Qatari jet and Trump's cryptocurrency business, Yahoo News and YouGov asked half of respondents whether they think "Donald Trump and his family are corrupt.' The goal was to test how people feel in the absence of any potentially new information about the subject.
A majority (51%) said yes, Trump and his family are corrupt; 34% said no. An additional 15% were unsure.
To also test how people feel once they've encountered some potentially new information about the subject, the other half of respondents were asked the corruption question after they were asked about the Qatari jet and Trump's cryptocurrency business.
The results weren't any different: 51% said yes, Trump and his family are corrupt; 35% said no. An additional 14% were unsure.
Both sets of results closely match previous Yahoo News/YouGov polls. The last time the corruption question was asked, in September 2023, 51% of Americans said yes, 30% said no and 19% said they weren't sure. Across all Yahoo News/YouGov surveys from 2022 and 2023, responses averaged 49% yes, 32% no and 19% not sure.
In other words, perceptions of corruption regarding Trump and his family are largely baked in at this point.
One reason recent reports haven't altered these perceptions — or Trump's overall approval rating, which at 41% approve to 54% is effectively the same as it was last month — is that Trump's supporters are paying far less attention to the issue of corruption than his detractors.
For instance, just 21% of Americans say they have heard "a lot" about "Trump and his family's involvement with cryptocurrency" — and that number is far higher among Democrats (31%) than Republicans (12%). Among those who've heard "a lot" about the cryptocurrency story, meanwhile, just 23% approve of how Trump is handling his job as president; a full 74% disapprove.
In contrast, more Americans who've heard 'nothing at all' about Trump's crypto involvement approve (51%) than disapprove (41%) of his job performance.
__________________
The Yahoo News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,560 U.S. adults interviewed online from May 22 to 27, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 2.9%.
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