Trump defends gifted Air Force One from Qatar and makes 2nd Amendment
pitch as he campaigns for GOP
[October 15, 2026]
By WILL WEISSERT, MIKE CATALINI JONATHAN J. COOPER and
MICHELLE L. PRICE
KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — President Donald Trump used a Western campaign
swing on Wednesday to pitch Republicans as vigilant supporters of gun
rights and to defend his acceptance of a luxury jet from Qatar to use as
Air Force One.
At an evening rally in Montana, Trump hewed close to the kind of attack
lines that his party wants to hear as the president travels the country,
and he warned that the Second Amendment would be “under siege" if
Democrats win in November’s midterm elections.
But his message was more off script earlier in the day as he visited an
economically struggling corner of rural Arizona. Trump opened his
remarks there by describing how the new jet parked behind him was a gift
from the Qatari royal family.
“When you’re given gifts, you take ’em, right?” Trump told the crowd in
Bullhead City. “When they give you a 747 you say two words: ‘thank
you.’”
Trump’s comments came during the second and final day of a Western
swing, part of a midterm roadshow designed to rally the Republican Party
ahead of Nov. 3 elections that will determine control of Congress. His
first stop was Alaska on Tuesday, where he announced Taiwan would
purchase gas from a proposed mega-gas project there and pardoned two
Alaskans who had pleaded guilty in 2022 to Clean Air Act violations.
The president continued to bestow favors in Montana, where he announced
a new military testing range that had been sought by the state's
Republicans.
"Montana will help ensure the American military always reigns supreme,”
he said.
As Americans grapple with persistent concerns about the cost of living,
Trump often reverts to some of his personal priorities, including
renovation projects in Washington or trappings of the presidency,
including the luxury jet.
Trump accepted the new plane last year despite strong criticism,
including from some of his staunchest Republican supporters.
Trump zeroes in on guns while campaigning in Montana
Trump's visit to Western Montana’s 1st District was aimed at boosting
House candidate Aaron Flint, a former aide to retiring Republican Rep.
Ryan Zinke, who was Interior secretary in Trump’s first-term Cabinet.
Flint’s opponent is Sam Forstag, a Democratic labor union leader and
Forest Service smokejumper, a specialized firefighter who gets to fires
by aircraft and parachute.
Forstag has said he supports expanding voluntary safe storage of
firearms for people in a mental health crisis, but he describes himself
as a gun rights champion and he says firearms are relied upon in Montana
for hunting and staying safe.
Trump, speaking to a crowd of his supporters in a horse show arena in
Kalispell, near Glacier National Park, called Forstag “extreme” and said
Democrats “will take your guns away if we don’t keep it going.”
He noted that Republican candidates Kurt Alme, running for the Senate,
and Aaron Flint, running for the House, have earned top ratings from the
National Rifle Association.
Meanwhile, Democratic Senate candidate Alani Bankhead has earned an F,
and Forstag was given a question mark by the NRA because he “refused to
fill out a form,” Trump said.
He did not mention Seth Bodnar, the independent in the Montana Senate
race who is backed by top Democrats in the state.
Luxury Air Force One serves as backdrop and speech fodder
In Arizona, soaring music played as the former Qatari jet flew low over
the local airport where supporters awaited Trump in the heat. The
president, wearing his signature red baseball cap, emerged with a wave
and a fist bump and slowly descended the stairs as speakers blasted Lee
Greenwood's “God Bless the USA," the song that marks Trump's entrance at
campaign events.
Air Force One, now wearing Trump's new red, white, blue and gold paint
scheme, and mountains filled the background as he started speaking about
how he learned that the Qataris had “the best of all the 747s.” He
described to the crowd, which was standing in the sun at a rural desert
airport to hear him speak, how he called Qatar’s emir and asked to
borrow the aircraft before the leader instead offered it as a gift.
Mohave County, where Bullhead City is located, has higher poverty and
unemployment rates than the state and nation, with a lower per-capita
income, according to Census and state unemployment data.
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Air Force One with President Donald Trump aboard flys past before
landing for a campaign rally at the Laughlin Bullhead International
Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Bullhead City, Ariz. (AP
Photo/John Locher)
Trump also spoke extensively about his aesthetic flourishes around
Washington: the White House ballroom that is under construction and a
just-completed helipad on the South Lawn, along with a triumphal arch he
has planned for the capital city.
"The fake news media doesn't talk about how well we're doing" as a
country, Trump said. Journalists ask him instead about “affordability,"
he said, pronouncing the word in a dismissive tone.
Trump traveled to Arizona to rally support for Rep. Andy Biggs, who is
seeking to defeat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Republicans running in
the state's two competitive U.S. House districts, Jay Feely and Rep.
Juan Ciscomani, did not attend the event.
GOP strategy is shifting as Election Day nears
With under three weeks left in the campaign, the Western swing comes as
Trump’s party has begun retreating from a handful of battleground U.S.
House races and Democrats aim to raise money for candidates who seemed
like long shots earlier this year.
The shifting money in the final weeks of midterm campaigns reflects an
increasingly defensive posture by Republicans, who have already trimmed
their expectations in U.S. Senate races, and new aggression from
Democrats, who are trying to capitalize on Trump’s low public approval.
Trump has kept up a brisk pace of hour-plus-long rallies — new White
House press secretary Katie Zacharia called it a “midterm blitz” — in
his effort to stem expected Republican losses and fight a historical
trend in which the president’s party typically loses seats in elections
halfway through their term in the White House.
Trump twice won Arizona, in 2016 and 2024, but lost the state in 2020.
Montana’s 1st District is slightly less Republican overall than the
state, which voted for Trump by double digits in each of his three
presidential campaigns.
Arizona is the lone swing state in recent stops
His other visits so far in October have taken him into traditionally
solid Republican territory — Alabama, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee and
Texas — as he weathers low approval ratings, rising costs and the Iran
war.
Arizona stands out as the lone swing state among the president’s recent
stops, though the airport rally was in a county Trump won with 78% of
the vote in 2024.
Biggs has been a stalwart ally of the president and assisted Trump's
attempt to block certification by the House of Trump's 2020 election
defeat. A one-time head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, he's
represented a safe GOP seat since winning election in 2016.
He faces Hobbs, who narrowly defeated Republican Kari Lake in the
governor's race four years ago. Arizona was long a GOP stronghold, and
registered Republicans still outnumber Democrats and independents by a
comfortable margin, but voters have repeatedly rejected Trump allies and
handed the state's top offices to Democrats.
Trump said Biggs “will always stand with law enforcement” and took aim
at Hobbs, who he said “does the bidding of the cartels” on the
U.S.-Mexico border. Hobbs counters that she has strengthened the border
by sending National Guard troops there and has boosted local law
enforcement funding.
___
Catalini reported from Morrisville, Pennsylvania, Cooper from Phoenix
and Price reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Seung Min
Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
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