The White House continues to deny that the proposed gift of a $400 million bespoke jumbo jet for President Donald Trump’s has anything to do with the man who would benefit most from the transaction.
During a Monday press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was questioned on whether the tricked-out aircraft currently owned by a member of Qatar’s ruling al-Thani family could be checked for listening devices or other security concerns and retrofitted to presidential standards. The jet’s use as a luxury transport comes as construction proceeds on two long-delayed aircraft to be used as Air Force One
Leavitt quickly repeated a previously used statement about the plane being accepted “according to all legal and ethical obligations” and said it would be “retrofitted to the highest of standards” by the Pentagon and the Air Force. But she then pivoted to a complaint about what she described as “misinformation” about the proposed donation, which according to Trump would see the plane delivered to the Department of Defense for use during his term and then transferred to his presidential library’s foundation around the time he leaves office in early 2029.
She claimed that the aircraft was “not a personal donation or gift” to Trump and said any journalist who suggested otherwise should correct their reporting.
“This is a donation to our country and to the United States Air Force,” she said, adding later that she’d refer further questions on retrofitting the aircraft to the Air Force because Trump “has nothing to do with it.”
Leavitt’s insistence that the president isn’t a party to the proposed transaction tracks with the opinion of Trump’s Department of Justice, which had moved swiftly to rule that accepting the gift would break no laws despite the U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibiting the president from accepting from accepting “any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House lawyer David Warrington said the donation of the aircraft would be “legally permissible” given that its ownership would be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation before the end of his term.
Officials have compared the transfer to the as-yet unbuilt Trump library to the transaction that saw the Air Force donate a Boeing 707 aircraft used as presidential transport from 1973 to 2001 to the Ronald Reagan library, which has displayed the disused aircraft in an exhibit featuring other vehicles used during Reagan’s presidency. And while Trump has claimed that he would not make use of the aircraft after leaving office, there’s no reason why it could not continue to fly for his personal use if his library had the funds to fuel and maintain the plane.
Trump has long fixated on the details of what has become a long-delayed, budget-busting project to replace two iconic Boeing 747 aircraft used for presidential transport since the George H.W. Bush administration to the point of picking out a dark blue and red paint scheme for the replacement planes, which are slated to be a pair of 747-8 airliners that were built for but never delivered to a bankrupt Russian airline.
But that project, which began around the time Trump’s first term started in 2017, has been dogged by supply chain problems, security delays and the bankruptcy of a key Boeing subcontractor, all on top of the difficulty of stripping a commercial aircraft down to studs and rebuilding it as a hardened VIP transport capable of functioning as a White House in the sky during all manner of crises while protecting itself from many forms of attacks using highly classified defensive capabilities.
The Qatari plane is reportedly so luxurious inside that it has been described as a “flying palace.” It has two full bathrooms, nine lavatories, a master bedroom and a guest bedroom, multiple lounges and a private office.
Retrofitting it to be used as Air Force One would likely require years of work to add secure communications, electromagnetic shielding, and possibly in-flight refueling capabilities. making it unlikely that it would be available for use before Trump’s term ends. Experts estimated that fixing up the plane could cost upward of $1 billion.
Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity aboard Air Force One during his trip to the Middle East last week, Trump appeared not to understand why the gesture had provoked such outrage.
“Why wouldn’t I accept a gift?” he asked, pointing out to Hannity how “much smaller” and “much less impressive” the present presidential plane is compared to the newer model.
“The plane that you are on right now is almost 40 years old,” he griped.
“When you land and you see Saudi Arabia, and you see [the UAE], and you see Qatar, and you see all these – they have these brand new Boeing 747s mostly.
“And you see ours next to it. This is like a totally different plane. It’s much smaller, it’s much less impressive... We’re the United States of America – I believe we should have the most impressive plane.”
Joe Sommerlad contributed reporting from London
