The president wants to use the gift for a trip to Ireland next weekend; plans to “max out” its security will wait.
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President Donald Trump plans to fly to Ireland next week aboard the Boeing 747 gifted to him by Qatar, a senior White House official said, marking his first international trip on the jet since a security threat in July prompted him to leave Turkey secretly aboard an alternate aircraft.
The trip underscores Trump’s continued fondness for and reliance on the Qatari jet despite concerns that it lacks some of the security features of the highly customized, heavily fortified Boeing 747-200B jumbo jets that have carried presidents for decades.
Trump said in July that the new plane would be sent away to be “maxed out” to address those concerns. Despite suggestions that the security upgrades would be made this fall, the White House has not announced a schedule for the work, which could slip until after the midterm elections.
“We don’t comment on specific upgrades or modifications to Air Force Once,” said a senior administration official in a statement. “We maintain a consistent posture that ensures a safe, secure, and reliable capability for the President of the United States and routinely evolve the capability as required to maintain that posture.”
In the absence of those upgrades, Trump is poised to use the Qatari-gifted plane more frequently as he ramps up his campaign-season travel. He is scheduled to travel to Texas next week to headline the Republican mini-convention in Dallas and said this week that he will be traveling to Alaska and other states with tight races before the Nov. 3 elections.
The United States already has spent $400 million retrofitting the Boeing 747 from Qatar. The administration has not said how much more it will need to pay to improve the jet in the coming months.
Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told The Washington Post that the modifications would begin in the fall and take about a month to complete, but security experts have been skeptical that the necessary upgrades could be made on that fast a timeline.
The gift of the plane from the Qatari government and royal family is an unprecedented arrangement largely intended to address Trump’s frustration with delays in replacing the fleet of decades-old planes that are known as Air Force One when ferrying the president. The Air Force awarded a contract to Boeing in 2017 to purchase two 747s for use as presidential transports. It is not clear if they will be ready before Trump’s term ends in January 2029.
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The Government Accountability Office has estimated that the costs to enhance the 747s now exceed $5.6 billion. Lawmakers have questioned why those upgrades have cost so much more than the changes made to the Qatari jet, and whether the jet is as secure as the government-purchased planes.
In early July, Trump began traveling on the new plane with the red, white and navy livery to events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, including the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt presidential library in North Dakota.
But questions about the security of the aircraft emerged just weeks into its use, when the president traveled on it internationally for the first time to the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
He did not take the jet on his return flight after the government received intelligence about a potential Iranian threat to attack it.
Trump initially claimed that he departed Turkey on the “former Air Force One,” writing on social media that he took the trip for “old time’s sake” and so that U.S. troops stationed in Britain could see the former Qatari aircraft.
Reporting by The Post revealed that Trump did not actually take that plane out of Turkey. After boarding the old Air Force One in front of TV cameras, he was secretly shuttled to an Air Force C-32A on a catering truck.
Trump flew the C-32A to Britain with a few personal aides and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Several other Cabinet members, White House staff and the traveling pool of reporters scheduled to fly with Trump remained on the old Air Force One, which had become a decoy. The press and at least some of the government officials on board were not aware of the switch.
After the operation, the White House defended the security of the Qatari plane.
“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told The Post last month.
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