The Trump administration is set to accept a luxury plane from the Qatari royal family which will be retrofitted and used as Air Force One during his second term, two people familiar with the agreement told CNN.
Trump embarks on his first major foreign trip Monday, 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 DOD will then retrofit the plane for the president’s use with security features and modifications.
ABC News first reported on the new plane.
Trump and aides toured the plane earlier this year at the airport in Palm Beach 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 plans 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.
–CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
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