Donald Trump says he wants to accept the gift of a $400 million luxury jet because Air Force One is nearly 40 years old and not as “impressive” as the planes owned by Middle Eastern leaders.
“When you land and you see Saudi Arabia, and you see UAE, and you see Qatar, and you see all this, and 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—as impressive as it is. We’re the United States of America, I believe that we should have the most impressive plane.”
Notice how at the 1:44 mark Hannity chimes in with some help for Trump in rationalizing accepting the plane saying we deserve the “gift” the U.S. handles global security issues around the world. I’ve personally never worried about “impressing” other countries with our planes. I think (at least before Trump) the U.S. impressed without trying. Trump goes on to say the new Boeing jets ordered to replace Air Force One are still a few years away from being finished, so why not accept a “free” plane? Except, this wouldn’t end up being “free.” From NBC News:
Converting a Qatari-owned 747 jet into a new Air Force One for President Donald Trump would involve installing multiple top-secret systems, cost over $1 billion and take years to complete, three aviation experts told NBC News.
They said that accepting the 13-year-old jet would likely cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over time, noting that refurbishing the commercial plane would exceed its current value of $400 million.
At the end of the day, this isn’t really a great deal for the U.S. We’re already buying the Boeing jets, we’d have to refurbish this Qatari jet, and in the end the deal says Trump gets to keep it – meaning it’s not really a “gift” to the U.S., but to Trump. Paging the emoluments clause… Congressional Republicans are having a problem with the deal as well.
Rand Paul condemns Trump accepting a gifted luxury jet from Qatar [image or embed]
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 12, 2025 at 5:29 PM
GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd: “I have serious concerns with this so-called gift from the govt of Qatar- security concerns, ethical concerns… but it’s also a gift from a govt that supports terrorist organizations like Hamas. If a Democratic president accepted a gift like this, we’d be outraged.” [image or embed]
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 14, 2025 at 8:39 AM
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