State Department approves sale of $1.4B worth of helicopters, F-16 parts to UAE ahead of Trump’s visit

The U.S. State Department announced it has approved a potential sale of more than $1.4 billion in helicopters and F-16 fighter jet parts to the United Arab Emirates, just ahead of President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle Eastern nation.

The proposed sale includes $1.32 billion for CH-47 F Chinook helicopters and $130 million for F-16s parts, the State Department said on Monday. 

The agency has notified Congress of the proposed sale, although some Democrats have previously signaled they may be hesitant to give the green light to such a sale.

This comes as Trump is expected to travel to the UAE later this week for the final stop on his four-day trip to the Middle East. He is also visiting Saudi Arabia and Qatar on his first major international trip of his second administration.

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The UAE has already vowed to spend $1.4 trillion in U.S. investments over the next decade, which are expected to focus on semiconductors, manufacturing, energy and artificial intelligence.

Arms transfers and defense trade are overseen by the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency and the State Department.

The State Department first reviews deals wanted by other countries to ensure they meet the U.S. government’s goals. If approved, the agency notifies Congress of the sale. Federal lawmakers may reject a proposed sale, but if they elect not to, the U.S. government proceeds to negotiations.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on Monday ahead of the State Department’s announcement that he would “block any arms sale to a nation that is doing direct personal business with Trump,” citing the UAE-backed investment firm putting $2 billion into Trump’s crypto venture and the U.S. president’s administration accepting Qatar’s gift of a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to serve as Air Force One.

“We should have a full Senate debate and vote,” Murphy wrote on X. “UAE’s investment in Trump crypto and Qatar’s gifting of a plane is nuclear grade graft. An unacceptable corruption of our foreign policy.”

“Normally, arms sales go forward without a vote,” he continued. “But any Senator can object and force a full debate and Senate vote. I will do that for any military deal with a nation that is paying off Trump personally. We can’t act like this is normal foreign policy.”

In January, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., expressed opposition to a $1.2 billion arms sale to the UAE, pointing to the country providing weapons to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, which the U.S. has accused of war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

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Congress has previously attempted to block Trump from completing arms sales to Gulf nations, including in 2019 during his first term, when lawmakers placed holds on deals with Saudi Arabia and the UAE over concerns about civilian casualties in the war in Yemen, as the Saudi coalition has been accused of being responsible for the majority of civilian deaths.

However, Trump has invoked a provision allowing sales to go through immediately without a review period in cases considered an emergency.