The Trump administration is set to accept a luxury plane from the Qatari royal family that will be retrofitted and used as Air Force One during the president’s second term, two people familiar with the agreement told CNN.
President Donald Trump embarks Monday on his first major foreign trip, which includes a stop in Doha, Qatar.
Given the massive value of a Boeing 747-8, the move is unprecedented and raises substantive ethical and legal questions. A Qatari official said the plane is technically being gifted from the Qatari Ministry of Defense to the Pentagon, describing it more as a government-to-government transaction instead of a personal one. The Defense Department will then retrofit the plane for the president’s use with security features and modifications.
The plan is for the plane to be donated to Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office, ensuring he can continue to use it, according to a person familiar.
“Reports that a jet is being gifted by Qatar to the United States government during the upcoming visit of President Trump are inaccurate,” Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attaché to the US, said Sunday.
“The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made,” he said.
Trump and aides toured the plane earlier this year at the airport in Palm Beach, Florida, and it is expected to be in use within two years, one person told CNN.
Following his tour, Trump has boasted to people around him about how luxurious the plane was.
“President Trump is touring a new Boeing plane to checkout the new hardware/technology,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement at the time.
Boeing has been working toward renovating two 747 jets into next-generation Air Force One aircraft, but the process has been wracked by delays . The planes had been scheduled to be delivered by 2022 and now aren’t expected until at least 2027 , according to reports.
Cheung said earlier this year that Trump’s tour of the plane “highlights the project’s failure to deliver a new Air Force One on time as promised, as they are already 5 years late.”
The president has been deeply frustrated by delays in new aircraft to be used as Air Force One. He at one point tasked Elon Musk with helping accelerate the process.
Supply chain issues and Covid-19 pandemic-era staffing shortages have contributed to the delays.
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