Qatar’s plans to gift a luxury Boeing 747-8 to President Donald Trump’s administration to use as Air Force One risks “significant espionage and surveillance problems,” Sen. Ted Cruz warned Tuesday. 

“I’m not a fan of Qatar,” the Texas Republican told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I think they have a really disturbing pattern of funding theocratic lunatics who want to murder us, funding Hamas and Hezbollah. And that’s a real problem…we’ll see how this issue plays out, but I certainly have concerns.” 

Qatar’s royal family offered the plane, which is valued at $500 million, to Trump and the United States before his trip to the Middle East, where he is visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. 

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