President Donald Trump unveiled the new Air Force One on Friday night, a Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar. He said the former presidential plane, which had served every U.S. president since George H.W. Bush, was retired two days earlier when he returned from the G7 summit, where he had also signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran.
Trump first received the aircraft during his visit to Qatar last year. He described the gift as unprecedented from a foreign government and said the jet, nicknamed a “flying palace in the sky,” was worth about $400 million. He toured it in February at West Palm Beach airport in Florida, near Mar-a-Lago. He said, “It was built to a level never seen. If the media wants, we will take you on a quick tour.” He also said he planned to travel to China later this year, noting that President Xi is due to visit in September, and said he intends to go to Turkey to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In his remarks, Trump thanked Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, calling him “a fantastic, brave man.” He also thanked “Saudi Arabia, the king and the crown prince, the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, they are loyal to us, Kuwait, Bahrain.” He added, “Of course we also fought well alongside Israel, and we had excellent relations with Israel. We were a very significant force, and Benjamin Netanyahu is a fighting prime minister, and that should be recognized. He should get credit, because he really did it.”
The White House said last year that Qatar had offered to donate the plane to the United States and that there was “no concern that it wants anything in return.” Trump has been eager to replace Air Force One since his first term and keeps a model of the redesigned aircraft, in dark blue, red, and white, in the Oval Office. He said last year that refusing the gift would be “stupid.” The 14-year-old plane was transferred to the U.S. Air Force, which modified it to meet military standards. Previous reports said Air Force One aircraft are equipped with systems that can jam radar and enemy tracking and include chaff dispensers and flares to confuse missiles.
