Trump: U.S. Govt. Will Accept ‘Luxury’ Air Force One Jet From Qatar
President Donald Trump revealed Sunday evening that the U.S. Department of Defense will accept a Boeing 747-8 aircraft, provided free of charge, as a temporary replacement for Air Force One. In a statement posted to Truth Social, President Trump described the arrangement as a “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE,” emphasizing the transparency and public nature of the deal.
According to a CNN report, the aircraft is being provided by the Qatari royal family and will be retrofitted for presidential use during Trump’s current term in office. Sources familiar with the arrangement confirmed the transfer is being conducted between governments, not as a personal gift, a detail that undermines partisan accusations currently being lobbed by Trump’s critics.
President Trump is set to begin his first major international trip on Monday, with a scheduled stop in Doha, Qatar — a development CNN itself acknowledged in its coverage.
The aircraft in question, a state-of-the-art Boeing 747-8 valued at approximately $400 million, is being transferred from the Qatari Ministry of Defense to the U.S. Department of Defense. Once in U.S. hands, the Pentagon will implement critical modifications to meet security protocols and presidential standards.
This comes at a time when Boeing's official replacement program for Air Force One has experienced extensive delays. Originally slated for delivery during the Biden administration in 2022, the two new aircraft are now not expected to be operational until 2027 — another broken promise of the previous administration’s handling of military logistics.
As President Trump explained in his post, the decision to accept the aircraft is both pragmatic and cost-saving: “So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40-year-old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!!”
Critics on the left are predictably outraged. Representative Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office, calling for an investigation into what he decried as the most expensive gift ever accepted by a U.S. president. In his letter, Torres derided the deal as a “flying grift” and invoked the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause — a favorite talking point for Democrats when all else fails.
“I am writing to express alarm over reports that President Donald Trump is poised to accept a luxury aircraft — a Boeing 747-8 — from the government of Qatar,” Torres wrote. “The plane, so opulent it has been described as a ‘palace in the sky,’ is set to be made available to President Trump for official use as Air Force One and then for private use once he leaves office.”
He added, “This ‘flying grift’ is merely the latest chapter in a tawdry tale of presidential profiteering unprecedented in American history” — though he failed to substantiate what other “profiteering” he was referring to.
Despite the performative outrage, Qatari officials have been clear: “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,” Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attaché to the U.S., said Sunday, as cited by CNN.
Earlier this year, President Trump and his team toured the aircraft in Palm Beach, Florida. According to insiders, Trump praised the plane’s luxury and efficiency, seeing it as a fitting vessel for his second term as Commander-in-Chief. Plans are already being discussed to transfer the aircraft to his presidential library once he leaves office, allowing for future public display and historical preservation.
Once again, President Trump has secured a solution that saves taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars — and the left can’t stand it.