Pentagon accepts Qatar's gift of luxury megajet

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May 21, 2025, 1:39 PM EDT / Updated May 21, 2025, 6:50 PM EDT
By Gordon Lubold, Katherine Doyle, Mosheh Gains and Courtney Kube

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department said it has officially accepted a luxury jet plane from Qatar to use as the new Air Force One for President Donald Trump. Now the administration's task is to get it ready for him as quickly as possible, despite real security and logistical issues that will need to be overcome, as well as bipartisan concern about the gift.

“The Secretary of Defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations," Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, said Tuesday. "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.”

Parnell referred additional requests for information to the Air Force. There was no immediate comment from the Qatari government.

Despite the Pentagon’s public acceptance of the gift, the deal is not yet finalized and the legal issues have not yet been resolved, according to a source familiar with the discussions ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/pentagon-says-accepted-qatars-gift-luxury-megajet-trumps-use-rcna208300

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1. Here's what it will take to transform the Qatari jet into Air Force One

May 23, 20255:00 AM ET
By Kat Lonsdorf

Democratic lawmakers and independent watchdogs say the gift violates the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, which bans government officials from taking gifts from foreign countries. Trump says it would be a gift to the DOD and that he would not use it after leaving office, when it would be kept at his presidential library ...

Two new Boeing 747-8 planes are currently being specially customized to become the next generation of Air Force One — a project that has been in the works for years and subject to delays. The new Boeing planes were supposed to be ready by last year but now aren't expected for several more years ...

Air Force One planes feature an "incredibly robust command and control suite," he says, and have defenses against a range of threats, from surface-to-air missiles to a nuclear blast ...

Much of the specifics of Air Force One aren't publicized, but a technical order accidentally published online by the Air Force in 2006 gave a look at the basic floor plan of the three-level plane as it was then — the bottom level for cargo, the middle level for essentially all the presidential functions, and the top, smaller level for the crew and communications ...

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/23/nx-s1-5406188/qatar-gift-plane-trump-air-force-one-overhaul-explained

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2. Firm tapped to modify Qatar jet for Trump admin agrees to $62 million settlement

Published Thu, May 22 20256:16 PM EDT
Kevin Breuninger
Leslie Josephs

Defense contractor L3Harris Technologies
will pay $62 million to settle allegations that it lied about the prices of equipment it sold to the U.S. military years earlier, the Justice Department said Thursday.

L3Harris was recently tapped to help modify a luxury Boeing 747 jet from Qatar’s royal family that President Donald Trump wants to use as a new Air Force One, CNBC reported earlier this month.

The settlement announcement came one day after the Pentagon formally accepted the airliner as a gift from the Qatari royal family.

“L3Harris is pleased to have been able to amicably resolve the matter referenced in the DOJ’s announcement,” the company said in a statement to CNBC ...

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/22/trump-gift-jet-qatar-l3harris.html