The United States on Wednesday officially accepted a luxury jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One, the Defense Department confirmed to on Wednesday.
“The Secretary of Defense [Pete Hegseth] has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to Tanya Noury, senior White House producer at The Hill’s sister network.
“The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the President of the United States,” he added, referring further questions to the Air Force.
The Qatari gift was also raised at President Trump’s meeting with South Africa’s president at the White House on Wednesday. Trump shot down the question and repeatedly insulted the reporter who asked about criticism around the jet.
Trump last week said he would accept the $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8, previously used by the Qatari royal family, as a stand-in for the aging Air Force One fleet.
The plane – which is one of the largest foreign gifts ever accepted by a U.S. president – has been criticized by U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who say it raises both ethical and security questions.
Numerous Republicans have argued that the purportedly free jet comes with strings, given it will need to go through the lengthy and expensive process of being transformed into Air Force One.
Others have raised safety concerns about the jet, including a group of senior Democratic senators led by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who want the Pentagon’s watchdog to look into the Defense Department’s acceptance of the gifted plane and the Defense Department’s role in the transfer.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), has said using the plane as Air Force One “would pose immense counterintelligence risks by granting a foreign nation potential access to sensitive systems and communications.”
But Trump has defended his decision to accept the jet, arguing it is legal and dismissing the bipartisan criticism as a “radical left story.”
“I just want to say, it was a radical left story,” Trump told Fox News’s Bret Baier in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, during a stop on his diplomatic trip to the Middle East last week. “The people here, to show you how crazy it is, they would like me to pay a billion dollars.”
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Tuesday described the gift as one “done in full transparency and very legally.”
Boeing has had a contract with the U.S. government since Trump’s first term in 2018 to replace its pair of aging Air Force Ones, two military versions of the Boeing 747. The delivery of the aircraft has been delayed until at least 2027, a timeline Trump has latched onto in arguing the Qatari jet could serve as an interim plane.
But the gifted aircraft from Qatar would face a retrofit that could take years to complete and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, with new power systems, electrical wiring and other technology for secure communications and self-defense needed.
This story was updated at 1:49 p.m.
