U.S. President Donald Trump is set to accept a luxury aircraft from the Qatari royal family to serve as the next Air Force One should he return to the White House, two sources familiar with the arrangement told CNN.
The aircraft, a Boeing 747-8, one of the most valuable and advanced commercial planes in the world, will be retrofitted for presidential use and is expected to enter service within two years.
Trump and his aides reportedly toured the jet earlier this year at Palm Beach International Airport, with one source saying the former president has since “boasted to people around him about how luxurious the plane was.”
“President Trump is touring a new Boeing plane to check out the new hardware/technology,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement at the time.
The jet is being gifted by the Qatari Ministry of Defence to the U.S. Department of Defence, according to a Qatari official, who emphasised the transaction is a government-to-government deal rather than a personal gift to Trump.
The Pentagon will oversee the aircraft’s conversion, adding advanced security and communications features to prepare it for presidential duties.
Trump is scheduled to depart Monday for his first major foreign trip since announcing his re-election bid, which includes a stop in Doha, Qatar, where further discussions around the aircraft transfer are expected to take place.
Given the diplomatic implications of accepting such an extravagant gift from a foreign government, the arrangement raises significant ethical and legal concerns.
Using a foreign-provided aircraft for official presidential duties has no known precedent in modern U.S. history.
This development comes amid longstanding frustrations from Trump over delays in the official Air Force One replacement programme.
Boeing has been working on converting two 747 jets for presidential use, but setbacks have plagued the effort.
Initially scheduled for delivery by 2022, the aircraft are now not expected before 2027.
Cheung pointed to those delays as justification for considering alternatives: “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.”
At one point, Trump even enlisted tech billionaire Elon Musk to help expedite the process, frustrated by supply chain bottlenecks and lingering effects of pandemic-era staffing shortages.
While the new plan may offer Trump a quicker path to replacing the ageing Air Force One, questions about the transparency and propriety of the deal are expected to intensify as he continues his campaign for a second term.
