The Club PUBlication 05/26/2025

Pentagon accepts luxury jet from Qatar for use as Air Force One
The $400M plane will need costly renovations for security reasons.
By ABIGAIL HAUSLOHNER and ALEX HORTON

​ The Washington Post
The Pentagon on Wednesday took possession of a Qatari luxury jet sought by President Donald Trump for use as Air Force One, despite vocal pushback from lawmakers, national security experts and legal scholars alarmed by the arrangement.

Trump has praised Qatar for offering the $400 million plane to his administration. But members of Congress, among other critics, have warned the president's pursuit of the Boeing 747 marks a clear violation of the Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign governments without lawmakers' approval.

A raft of national security experts, including veteran Pentagon officials, also have panned the idea, saying the plane would require a costly and time-consuming renovation to meet the security and technical standards required to transport a U.S. president.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accepted the massive jet, which Trump has called a "flying palace," from the Persian Gulf monarchy "in accordance with all federal rules and regulations."

He did not elaborate.

"The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional mission requirements are considered,"
Parnell said .

The Air Force said in a statement that it was "preparing to award a contract to modify a Boeing 747 aircraft for executive airlift. Details related to the contract are classified."

Air Force officials did not specify whether there would be a bidding process for that contract, how much the work could cost, or how long the project would take. Earlier this month, the Air Force told lawmakers that Boeing's ongoing construction of a new presidential aircraft could be complete by 2027.

Trump has indicated repeatedly that he is unwilling to wait.
He told reporters last week that the "gift" from Qatar announced during his recent visit to the country might be transferred to his presidential library for his continued personal use after he leaves office.

The plans have provoked a fierce backlash from Democrats and more muted concern from some Republicans.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who appeared on Capitol Hill this week to defend the administration's dramatic cuts to foreign assistance and restructuring of the State Department, also faced a barrage of questions about the legality of accepting the plane from Qatar and the projected cost of retrofitting it for the president's use.

"I'm not aware of any plane that's been given. I know the media reports about it," he told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday, about an hour before the Pentagon's announcement.
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