Trump defends the prospect of Qatar gifting him a plane to use as Air
Force One
[May 12, 2025]
By ZEKE MILLER and WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is ready to accept a luxury
Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar during
his trip to the Middle East this coming week, and U.S. officials say it
could be converted into a potential presidential aircraft.
The Qatari government said a final decision hadn't been made. Still,
Trump defended the idea — what would amount to a president accepting an
astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government — as a fiscally
smart move for the country.
“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 on his social media site on Sunday night. “Anybody
can do that!”
ABC News reported that Trump will use the aircraft as his presidential
plane until shortly before he leaves office in January 2029, when
ownership will be transferred to the foundation overseeing his
yet-to-be-built presidential library.
The gift was expected to be announced when Trump visits Qatar, according
to ABC's report, as part of a trip that also includes stops in Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the first extended foreign travel
of his second term.
Before Trump's post trumpeting the idea, Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media
attaché, said in a statement that the “possible transfer of an aircraft
for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration
between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense."
“But the matter remains under review by the respective legal
departments, and no decision has been made,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, administration officials, anticipating ethics concerns, have
prepared an analysis arguing that accepting the plane would be legal,
according to ABC. The Constitution’s Emoluments Clause bars anyone
holding government office from accepting any present, emolument, office
or title from any “King, Prince, or foreign State,” without
congressional consent.
One expert on government ethics, Kathleen Clark of the Washington
University School of Law in St. Louis, accused Trump of being “committed
to exploiting the federal government’s power, not on behalf of policy
goals, but for amassing personal wealth.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer poked fun at Trump's “America
first” political slogan.
“Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by
Qatar," the New York Democrat said in a statement. "It’s not just
bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.”
Even some conservatives expressed dismay online, noting that an aircraft
being offered by a foreign government could present security risks if
used by a U.S. president.
Air Force One is a modified Boeing 747. Two exist, and the president
flies on both, which are more than 30 years old. Boeing Inc. has the
contract to produce updated versions, but delivery has been delayed
while the company has lost billions of dollars on the project.
Trump intends to convert the Qatari aircraft into a plane he can fly on
as president, with the Air Force planning to add secure communications
and other classified elements to it. But it will still have more limited
capabilities than the existing planes that were built to serve as Air
Force One, as well as two other aircraft currently under construction,
according to a former U.S. official.
The official was briefed about the plane and spoke Sunday on the
condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been made
public.
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A 13-year-old private Boeing aircraft that President Donald
Trump toured on Saturday to check out new hardware and technology
features, and highlight the aircraft maker's delay in delivering
updated versions of the Air Force One presidential aircraft, takes
off from Palm Beach International Airport, Feb. 16, 2025, in West
Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
The existing planes used as Air Force One are heavily modified with
survivability capabilities for the president for a range of
contingencies, including radiation shielding and antimissile
technology. They also include a variety of communications systems to
allow the president to remain in contact with the military and issue
orders from anywhere in the world.
The official told The Associated Press that it would be possible to
quickly add some countermeasures and communications systems to the
Qatari plane, but that it would be less capable than the existing
Air Force One aircraft or long-delayed replacements.
Neither the Qatari plane nor the upcoming VC-25B aircraft will have
the air-to-air refueling capabilities of the current VC-25A
aircraft, which is the one the president currently flies on, the
official said.
Jordan Libowitz, communications director for the advocacy group
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called such a
gift “unprecedented."
“The totality of gifts given to a president over their term doesn’t
get close to this level,” Libowitz said, adding, “You have to ask,
if he makes foreign policy — especially in regards to the Middle
East — how much is he being influenced by his gifts and his business
deals.”
ABC said the new plane is similar to a 13-year-old Boeing aircraft
Trump toured in February, while it was parked at Palm Beach
International Airport and he was spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago
club.
Trump faced lawsuits for violating the Emoluments Clause during his
first term, but those were ended by the Supreme Court in 2021, which
found the cases moot because the Republican had left office.
Trump's family business, the Trump Organization, which is now
largely run by his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, has vast
and growing interests in the Middle East. That includes a new deal
to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar, partnering with Qatari Diar,
a real estate company backed by that country’s sovereign wealth
fund.
Qatar, which is ruled by the Al Thani family, is home to the
state-owned airline Qatar Airways. The country also has worked to
have a close relationship to Trump after he apparently backed a
boycott of Doha by four Arab nations in his first term. Trump later
in his term applauded Qatar.
Administration officials have brushed off concerns about the
president’s policy interests blurring with family's business
profits. They note that Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his
children and that a voluntary ethics agreement released by the Trump
Organization in January bars the company from striking deals
directly with foreign governments.
But that same agreement allows deals with private companies abroad.
That is a departure from Trump’s first term, when the organization
released an ethics pact prohibiting both foreign government and
foreign company deals.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked Friday if
the president might meet with people who have ties to his family’s
business, said it was “ridiculous” to suggest Trump "is doing
anything for his own benefit.”
___
Associated Press writer Christine Fernando in Chicago and Jon
Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
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