President Donald Trump insisted he would have been “stupid” not to accept a gift of a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the Qatari royal family.
Speaking for the first time about the controversial “contribution,” the president hit back at critics who have questioned his ethics, and the offer was simply too good to refuse.
“I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane,’” he said.
He added that he would not fly the jet after his presidency and planned to put it on show at his presidential library.
The plane would “go directly” to his presidential library after he leaves office: “I wouldn’t be using it,” Trump said.
Trump noted that when former President Ronald Reagan‘s plane was decommissioned, it was moved to his presidential library in California. “It actually made the library more successful,” he said. “So it was good.”
Visitors to Reagan’s library in Simi Valley can walk through Air Force One, the “Flying White House” for Reagan and six other presidents from 1973-2001.
Talking in the Oval Office, Trump explained he was “very disappointed” that aircraft manufacturer Boeing was taking so long to build a new Air Force One plane to replace the current 40-year-old aircraft.
“You look at some of the Arab countries and the planes they have parked alongside the United States of America plane, and it’s like from a different planet,” he added.
He said he negotiated a deal for a new plane and bargained down the price during his first term, but “when the election didn’t work out exactly how it should have done,” it ended up being “a total mess.”
When Trump returned to office, he said he was told the new plane had been beset by delays.
As the U.S. has helped Qatar “in terms of security and safety,” Trump said it was a no-brainer to accept a Boeing as “a contribution to our Defense Department to use for a couple of years while they’re building the other ones.”
He continued: “The money we spend, the maintenance on those planes to keep them tippy top is astronomical.
“We keep them safe. If it wasn’t for us, they probably wouldn’t exist right now,” he said, referring to Arab countries. “And I think this was just a gesture of good faith.”
On Sunday night, Trump posted an angry message on Truth Social attacking the skeptics.
“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,” Trump posted. “Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA.”
Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attaché, said in a statement earlier on Sunday that the plane was being gifted from the Arab nation’s Ministry of Defense to the Pentagon.
Democrat lawmakers have widely criticized the deal as blatant corruption.
Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar. It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom. pic.twitter.com/oBqgHbikHf
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 11, 2025
‘Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar. It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom,” Senator Chuck Schumer posted on X.
The post Trump Defends Qatar Plane Deal and Insists It’s Just for Show appeared first on The Daily Beast.
