Even if the jet from Qatar were free, this arrangement would still be a legal and ethical mess. But the free plane also wouldn’t be free.
Even if the luxury jet from Qatar were free, this "gift" would still be a legal and ethical mess. But there's a related problem:
The free plane would cost American taxpayers a fortune.
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-05-14T12:53:41.846Z
Even if the luxury jet from Qatar were free, this "gift" would still be a legal and ethical mess. But there's a related problem:
The free plane would cost American taxpayers a fortune.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/problems-trumps-free-luxury-jet-qatar-s-not-actually-free-rcna206706
Even if the luxury jet were free, this arrangement would still be a legal, ethical and political mess.
But there’s a related problem: The “free” plane wouldn’t be free. NBC News reported:
Converting a Qatari-owned 747 jet into a new Air Force One for President Donald Trump would involve installing multiple top-secret systems, cost over $1 billion and take years to complete, three aviation experts told NBC News. They said that accepting the 13-year-old jet would likely cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over time, noting that refurbishing the commercial plane would exceed its current value of $400 million.
Politico had a related report that noted it
“could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars” to retrofit Qatar’s “gift” into a makeshift Air Force One.
“This isn’t really a gift,” said Rep. Joe Courtney told Politico. The Connecticut Democrat, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and helps oversee its panel on executive airlift, added, “
You’d basically have to tear the plane down to the studs and rebuild it to meet all the survivability, security and communications requirements of Air Force One. It’s a massive undertaking — and an unfunded one at that.”
In other words, when Trump says the jet from Qatar would be “FREE OF CHARGE,” it’s true that it would be free for him — the president wouldn’t have to reach for his own wallet — but it wouldn’t be free to us, the American taxpayers.....
Soon after Schumer’s comments, Senate Democrats tried to advance a resolution that condemned “any acceptance of a Presidential aircraft, or any other substantial gift, from a foreign government as a grave national security threat to the Office of the President” and demanded that such a gift could only be accepted with the approval of Congress.
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama blocked the measure.
Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who introduced the resolution, said, “
I remain flabbergasted that this thing is not going to pass. I remain completely aghast. This is the most blatant, obvious, ridiculous, gross corruption that I’ve ever seen in my entire life — by dollar amount, by symbolism, by violating constitutional and statutory law.”
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