The Trump administration first approached Qatar to inquire about acquiring a Boeing 747 that could be used as Air Force One by President Donald Trump, four sources familiar with the discussions told CNN. That’s contrary to the narrative from the president that Qatar reached out and offered the jet as a “gift” to him.
After Trump took office in January, the Pentagon contacted Boeing and was told the company would not be able to deliver the new jets it was building to replace the aging presidential planes for another two years, the sources said.
The Trump administration, however, wanted a replacement plane much faster, and the Air Force was exploring different options for doing so. At the same time, Trump tasked his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff with finding a list of viable planes, a senior White House official told CNN.
After the Pentagon’s initial engagement with the company, Boeing provided US defense officials with a list of other Boeing clients around the world with planes that could work in the meantime, three of the sources said.
“And Qatar was one of the clients,” the second source familiar with the discussions said, adding the Pentagon “offered to buy the plane” and Qatar indicated it was willing to sell it.
The Pentagon had launched the discussions with Qatar after learning that the White House supported the idea, the third source familiar said, and Witkoff helped facilitated the initial conversations, the White House official said.
The third source recalled that the initial discussions were about leasing the plane, rather than buying it outright.
But Trump has repeatedly described the potential deal as a “gesture” or “contribution” from Qatar’s royal family. A “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE,” he wrote on his social media site Truth Social. He said it would be a temporary replacement for Air Force One and given to his presidential library after he leaves office but denied he would fly in the plane then.
The details on the administration outreach sheds new light on the origins of the potential transfer of the jet, which provoked a political furor that threatened to overshadow Trump’s trip to the Middle East last week. Democrats and several influential Republicans, who are normally staunch supporters the president, have said they oppose the potential deal on ethics grounds. Qatar has also faced a backlash, with Democratic lawmakers threatening to hold up weapons sales to the Gulf country.
Boeing is “very late with the plane,” Trump said in an interview last week with Fox News, “and Qatar heard about it, and he’s a great leader. And we were talking, and he said, ‘If I can help you, let me do that.’ And they had a plane.”
In February, Trump toured the Qatari plane with some aides when it was at the airport in Palm Beach, Florida, near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Afterwards, Trump remarked on how luxurious the plane is to people around him, CNN has reported. Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said at the time that Trump was on the plane “to check out the new hardware/technology.”
The Pentagon deferred questions to the White House. CNN has asked the White House, the Qatari embassy in Washington and a spokesperson for Boeing for comment.
Both Washington and Doha have emphasized that if the transfer happens, it will be conducted legally between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense, a point repeated by the White House on Monday.
Lawyers are still hashing out the deal
The four people familiar with the discussions say the transaction is still being hashed out by lawyers on the two sides.
“From that time [the initial US outreach to Qatar] until today, the matter is still with the legal teams,” said the second source familiar with the discussions, “and no decision has been made at all.”
Reports have put the value of the plane around $400 million, but two of the sources said that it has depreciated in value.
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the potential transfer a “donation to our country,” saying Qatar’s royal family “has offered to donate this plane to the United States Air Force, where that donation will be accepted according to all legal and ethical obligations.”
During Trump’s Middle East trip, he said he “would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’ But it was, I thought it was a great gesture.”
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani did not confirm Trump’s claim of being approached by a Qatari official when asked by CNN’s Becky Anderson last Wednesday, saying: “It has nothing to do with personnel, whether it’s on the US side or the Qatari side.”
“This is a very simple government-to-government dealing when Ministry of Defense and Department of Defense are still exchanging the possibility of transferring one of our 747-8 to be used as Air Force One and it’s still under the legal review,” Al-Thani said in the interview.
“At the end of the day, if there is something that the US need and it’s completely legal and we can, we are able to help and to support the US, then we are not shying away,” Al-Thani continued, adding that “of course” the offer would be withdrawn if the transaction were deemed illegal.
Beyond the ethical and legal questions, retrofitting and installing the required security and communications equipment on a second-hand plane from another government, even a friendly one, is a monumental task.
It could take two years and cost multiples of what the plane itself is worth, current and former officials have told CNN. US spy and security agencies tasked with the overhaul would need to essentially strip the aircraft down to its frame and rebuild it with the necessary equipment.
“I don’t see how you do this with an acceptable level of risk in a reasonable amount of time, if you can do it at all,” a former senior counterintelligence official previously told CNN.
The two Boeing 747-800s that are set to become the permanent Air Force One replacements are due to be delivered in 2027, in the second half of Trump’s final term.
“I would not necessarily guarantee that date, but they are proposing to bring it in ’27, if we can come to agreement on the requirement changes,” the Air Force’s acting acquisitions chief, Darlene Costello, told Congress earlier this month.
That’s five years later than the original delivery date but still two years earlier than Boeing had recently predicted.
“I’m not happy with the fact that it’s taken so long,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One in February. “There’s no excuse for it.”
“I could buy one that was used and convert it,” he added, “So we’re looking at other alternatives.”
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