Trump to accept luxury jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One

The news comes as President Donald Trump embarks Monday on his first major foreign trip, which includes a stop in Doha, Qatar.

Given the massive value of a Boeing 747-8, the move is unprecedented and raises substantial ethical and legal questions. A Qatari official said the plane is technically being gifted from the Qatari Ministry of Defense to the Pentagon, describing it more as a government-to-government transaction instead of a personal one. The Defense Department will then retrofit the plane for the president’s use with security features and modifications.

The plan is for the plane to be donated to Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office, ensuring he can continue to use it, according to a person familiar.

“Reports that a jet is being gifted by Qatar to the United States government during the upcoming visit of President Trump are inaccurate,” Ali Al-Ansari, Qatar’s media attaché to the US, said Sunday.

“The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made,” he said.

Within the Secret Service, the potential gifting of a plane by a foreign government for presidential use is being viewed as a “security nightmare,” a law enforcement source told CNN.

“The (US Air Force) would have to tear it apart looking for surveillance equipment and inspect the integrity of the plane,” the source said.

ABC News first reported on the new plane.

Trump and aides toured the plane earlier this year at the airport in Palm Beach, Florida, and it is expected to be in use within two years, one person told CNN.

Following his tour, Trump has boasted to people around him about how luxurious the plane was.

“President Trump is touring a new Boeing plane to checkout the new hardware/technology,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement at the time.

Boeing’s Air Force One woes

Boeing has been working toward renovating two 747 jets into next-generation Air Force One aircraft, but the process has been wracked by delays. The planes had been scheduled to be delivered by 2022 and now aren’t expected until at least 2027.

Cheung said earlier this year that Trump’s tour of the plane in Palm Beach “highlights the project’s failure to deliver a new Air Force One on time as promised, as they are already 5 years late.”

Boeing’s $3.9 billion contract to replace the two Air Force One jets has become an expensive and embarrassing albatross. The company has already reported losses totaling $2.5 billion already on the program, known as VC-25B, since it agreed to be responsible for what has become soaring cost overruns.

The two jets currently in use, which have the code letters VC-25A and carry the Air Force One designation when the president is on board, have been in service for nearly 35 years, starting during the term of President George H.W. Bush. Replacing the planes has long been a priority for Trump, who has been deeply frustrated by the delays.

“I’m not happy with the fact that it’s taken so long,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One in February. “There’s no excuse for it.” He said he wouldn’t turn to Boeing’s European rival, Airbus, but would consider buying a used 747 and having a different company refurbish it for use as Air Force One.

The challenge is not the basic jet, but what it takes to turn a run-of-the-mill Boeing 747 into the flying communications and command post fit for the president of the United States, Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, an aerospace consulting firm, previously told CNN. They are supposed to be able to protect its occupants from missile attacks or even the shock waves of a nuclear blast.

“You can have a jet anytime,” he said. “But it takes a great deal of work to have encrypted communications and manage the military and federal government from anywhere around the world in any circumstance.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Betsy Klein, Kylie Atwood, Chris Isidore and Josh Campbell contributed to this report.