The luxurious plane previously functioned as a Qatari private business jet. It features a large primary bedroom with loveseats and an en-suite bathroom, guest bedrooms, office space, a dining room, and a salon lounge with plush couches.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a May 2025 briefing that the Qatari royal family donated the jumbo jet to the US Air Force and that it was being “retrofitted to the highest standards” to serve as Air Force One. Some estimates put the cost of upgrading the jet for the office of the president at $1 billion, but the US Air Force secretary said in June 2025 that it will cost less than $400 million to retrofit.
Trump, who had pressured Boeing to deliver its new Air Force One planes sooner and criticized the project’s “failure” to complete them on time, said he’d be “stupid” to turn down the Qatari plane, worth an estimated $400 million. In July 2025, he said the plane could be ready as soon as February 2026, but that deadline has since passed.
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