When President Donald Trump accepted an extravagant super luxury Boeing 747-8 from the Kingdom of Qatar as the new Air Force One, everyone had an opinion about it, mostly negative.

Qatar isn’t exactly the strongest U.S. ally in the Middle East. Not only does it house Al Jazeera — a pro-terror news outlet — but the Qatari government is the middleman for jihadists in the region like Hamas. Naturally, the American people have been skeptical of the gift.

Some have always seen the Boeing airplane as a bribe from Qatar. This is absolutely fair. That oil-rich country is an influence seeker and will happily spend money to ensure its international interests are front and center. Just consider what the Qataris are doing to American colleges; they funnel millions of dollars to Western universities to instill pro-Islamist sentiments in naive students.

Worse than a bribe, some conservatives saw the jet as a potential Trojan horse. Why, they ask, would we accept a gift from a tenuous foreign ally? This consternation was amplified earlier this month when President Trump flew the new plane to Turkey for the NATO summit, yet returned on an older Air Force One. According to rumors, the Qatari plane had been retrofitted, but it lacked all the bells and whistles needed to protect its most important passenger.

The New York Times reports that the new jet “lacks the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities, according to multiple officials who have been briefed on how the jet was retrofitted.”

A Times reporter was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice to identify the source of the leaks, which indicates that the reporting is true. However, Trump assured the public that the plane switch was due to security precautions regarding the Iran war.

The new jet “has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re gonna send it to have it be maxed out,” Trump told reporters last weekend. “So, they’re gonna be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out. It’ll take about a month.”

Democrats have always seen the new jet as a political issue with which to whip their base into a frenzy. Ergo, they tried to pass legislation that would prevent any more Pentagon spending on the jet, cynically calling it an “illegal gift.” They want the $400 million plane to rot on a runway until it is finally moved to Trump’s presidential library after his term is finished.

Nebraska Republican Senator Deb Fischer blocked the Democrats’ bill, calling it cynical, shortsighted, and too broad. It would prevent the Department of Defense from repairing, acquiring, or otherwise modifying aircraft previously owned by a foreign nation, thereby undermining the DOD’s ability to use Korean Air jets specifically designed to protect and transport the president in the event of a nuclear attack.

“This legislation would hamper a crucial program that ensures presidential safety in the event of a nuclear war,” Fischer said. “Thus Senator Schumer’s bill would significantly harm our United States nuclear deterrence.”

Qatar’s Boeing 747-8 may not be a Trojan horse, but it is definitely a tar baby — one that Donald Trump should not have touched with a 10-foot pole. Now we have conservative pundits writing “I told you so” articles and leftists suggesting that Trump should send the plane back to Qatar. But the toothpaste is out of the tube, and giving the jet back now is not an option.

The best the DOD can do going forward is make the new jet as safe as possible for the president. Moreover, Congress needs to focus on more pressing issues than blocking funding for an airplane, like addressing the massive welfare fraud being perpetrated against the American people and passing the SAVE America Act to secure our elections.