Congress
Senate OKs arms sales to Qatar and UAE despite deals that benefit Trump
The Senate has rejected resolutions seeking to block multi-billion-dollar arms sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates over the objections of Democrats who say President Donald Trump will personally benefit from separate deals with these countries.
The Senate voted 39-56 on Wednesday against each of the joint resolutions of disapproval, which would have halted a $1.9 billion sale of MQ-9 Reaper drones to Qatar and $1.3 billion Chinook helicopter sale to the UAE.
The votes broke down largely along party lines. But joining the Republicans were five Democrats: Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.); Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.); Andy Kim (D-N.J.); Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.); and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted present.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who forced the votes, argued on the Senate floor that allowing the sales to proceed would effectively sanction what Democrats say is Trump’s brazen corruption. He and allies cited Trump’s solicitation of a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar for his use as Air Force One and a $2 billion Emirati investment in a Trump-affiliated cryptocurrency venture.
The administration has said it accepted the jet in accordance with the law, while Trump himself has defended the acquisition, calling it a goodwill gesture by Qatar and a cost-saving stopgap due to massive delays in the Air Force’s effort to replace the current fleet with two Boeing planes. Still, lawmakers have questioned the cost of making the foreign jet secure and functional enough to serve as Air Force One.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in Senate testimony Wednesday, refused to disclose the cost or delivery timeline of a luxury Qatari jet being retrofitted for use as Air Force One, sparking bipartisan Senate criticism. Lawmakers have raised concerns over transparency, cost, and reports the plane may be transferred to Trump’s presidential library.
Murphy, in a floor speech Wednesday, argued that Congress approving the arms deals amounted to Congress “greasing the wheels” of presidential corruption. Allies also pointed to the UAE’s purported role in Sudan’s ongoing civil war and both countries’ authoritarian governments.
“Trump would not be moving forward with these arms sales if he wasn’t getting what he wanted personally from these two countries,” Murphy said. “American foreign policy should not be for sale.”
Republicans largely dismissed the resolutions as political theater and defended the arms sales as important to strengthening Middle Eastern partners.
Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch (R-Idaho) argued the sales support two major allies of the U.S. Qatar is a major non-NATO ally and hosts the largest U.S. base in the Middle East, and the UAE, a military partner that fought alongside U.S. forces, is in the Abraham Accords, and opposes Iran and its proxies.
“These proposed sales will support the national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of two allies that continue to be important forces for stability in the Middle East,” he said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton raised $18 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the homestretch of the election.
Paxton’s number is double his $9 million second-quarter total, and signals Republican donors are rallying behind their Texas nominee. The campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
Democrat James Talarico’s campaign has yet to release his fundraising totals for the quarter. He raised $30 million last quarter.
“We now have the resources to make sure every Texan sees Talarico’s radical record between now and Election Day,” said Nick Maddux, senior adviser to the Paxton campaign.
The past quarter — the first full reporting period after Paxton’s primary runoff victory in May — saw Republicans flock to Texas for their midterm convention, which featured pro-Paxton fundraisers on the sidelines. Last week, the Paxton campaign announced a massive $20 million ad buy across the state, one of the largest-ever single media investments in a Texas Senate race.
Paxton needs the money: In a recording of a private donor event last month shared with POLITICO, he said he has “never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign,” pointing to influence “from D.C.”
Texas has emerged as a huge money suck for Senate Republicans, who have poured tens of millions into the state to aid Paxton. Senate Leadership Fund, their top super PAC, has spent or reserved well over $100 million in the state to date, and the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. and its affiliates plan to spend near $45 million in the state through Oct. 12.
Paxton has acknowledged that money has changed the race’s narrative: In a recording of a private donor event last monthshared with POLITICO, he said he has “never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign,” pointing to influence “from D.C.”
Most recent public polling shows Talarico with a small lead in the race in spite of the recent onslaught in GOP spending, though Paxton’s campaign released an internal poll last week showing Paxton leading by three points.
Sen. Raphael Warnock is hitting the road for the last month before Election Day.
The Georgia Democrat’s final midterm campaign surrogate sprint will only increase chatter around the possibility that he might run for president in 2028, according to a nine-stop itinerary shared first with Blue Light News.
First, he’ll touch down in New Hampshire on Tuesday before hitting Nevada on Wednesday. Next, he’ll travel to South Carolina (Oct. 13), Mississippi (Oct. 14), North Carolina (Oct. 15), South Carolina (Oct. 16-17), Michigan (Oct. 20-21), Wisconsin (Oct. 23) and Ohio (Oct. 24-26).
“Senator Reverend Warnock will be hitting the trail to energize voters who are sick of the President enriching himself while ordinary people continue to pay more for everything,” a spokesperson told Playbook. “Tapping into the righteous anger that voters are feeling across the country, the pastor in the Senate will again make the campaign trail his pulpit: calling out Trump’s corruption, while leaving voters hopeful for the next generation of Democratic leadership.”
Asked recently at the Texas Tribune Festival about whether he would run for president, Warnock said: “We’ll see what happens.”
Democrats are eager to win back subpoena power if they retake Congress, but they’re split on how hard they’ll go after corporate America.
The party is united by the idea of aggressive oversight of President Donald Trump’s administration, which will help shape their messaging in the run-up to the 2028 election. But Democrats are at odds over how fiercely to use their probing power to go after the corporations, law firms and universities that courted the White House over the past two years.
“We don’t want to turn into a banana republic where you lose an election and it’s all about retribution,” Rep. Bill Foster, a senior member of the Financial Services Committee, said.
“We’re going to have to be a little bit wise about when companies simply did something they had to do to survive this unprecedented level of corruption, compared to companies that actually got on board and profited more by being a partner in his corruption,” he added.
Some progressives counter that a restrained approach would sit uneasily with the party’s base.
“It would be political suicide for Democrats to campaign on fighting corruption and then turn around and go easy on the very companies that are facilitating it,” said Ella Fanger, corporate power policy adviser at the liberal nonprofit group Demand Progress.
Prime targets for some Democrats are the tech companies that have taken steps to be on the president’s good side, like Apple, Amazon and Meta, which have all donated to Trump’s ballroom effort. Major cryptocurrency players, including Coinbase, Ripple and Tether also chipped in for the ballroom, and will be subject to questioning from Democrats.
The late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s networks and associates are also poised for probes — a push that has ensnared big banks like JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America in the past.
Sen. Chris Murphy said the party should focus on the nexus between Trump and corporate corruption.
“We should get to the bottom of the corrupt relationship that exists between corporations in this country and the Trump administration,” Murphy said, pointing to questions he’s posed about a tobacco company’s donation to Trump’s super PAC before new e-cigarette rules were unveiled.
Still, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who serves on Senate Banking, warned against the weaponization of power.
“Our focus should be solving problems that we’re seeing happening,” she said, pointing to cost-of-living issues around health care, housing and energy.
What else we’re watching:
— FIRST IN IC: BUILD AMERICA CAUCUS AGENDA — Energized by progress on permitting and housing legislation this term, a bipartisan development-focused caucus is rolling out a detailed agenda for next term. The 40-member Build America Caucus is releasing a 95-page package of proposals, first shared with Blue Light News, that outlines plans touching on health care, transportation, child care and research. The group launched last year with the goal of cutting red tape and regulatory bottlenecks to spur development.
— AI COLLAB STILL ILLUSIVE FOR CRUZ, CANTWELL — Commerce Chair Ted Cruz and ranking member Maria Cantwell might still be celebrating Senate passage of their landmark college sports bill last week, but it’s unclear the momentum will carry forward to agreement on another committee priority: artificial intelligence. Among the dozen lawmakers, aides and industry experts who spoke to Blue Light News, few expect the two senators to shed their well-established ideologies and styles after the mutual win. That could doom their ability to replicate their latest achievement in something as complex and divisive as an AI regulatory framework.
Jasper Goodman, Katherine Hapgood, Riley Rogerson and Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.
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