The story of how the #Trump admin decided that it would accept a *free* luxury Boeing 747-8 from #Qatar to serve as #AirForceOne involved weeks of secret coordination between Washington & Doha. The #Pentagon & the White House’s military office swung into action, & Trump’s Middle East *envoy*, #SteveWitkoff, played a key role.
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Soon after #Trump took office, *military* ofcls started to discuss how the US could buy a temporary plane for Trump to use while Boeing’s work creaked along, an investigation by NYT found. But by May 11, when Trump announced on social media that #Qatar would be providing the plane to the US, he characterized it as “a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE.”
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…it remains unclear exactly how a plan that #Pentagon officials & others inside the #Trump admin initially assumed would involve buying the plane from #Qatar morphed into a proposed #gift by the Middle Eastern nation.
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…Interviews w/14 people involved in or briefed on the search for the replacement plane say it started when the WH Military Office, which oversees presidential travel, worked w/Boeing & the #Defense Dept to compile a list of every late-model 747 on the market with a business-jet layout, which could more quickly be retrofitted into #AirForceOne.
There were only 8 planes in the world that fit the bill, including a flashy double-decker jet that #Qatar had been trying to sell for years…
A brochure for the aircraft advertised just the kind of opulence #Trump favors. There were “soft fabrics of the highest quality” in the bedroom, along with “luxurious leather & exquisite wood veneers” & a “lavishly designed” bathroom that is “almost a piece of art.”
…#SteveWitkoff, an old friend from Trump’s early days in NY real estate, knew the Qataris well. The country’s sovereign wealth fund had bailed him out in 2023 when a real estate deal on Central Park South went bad.
So #SteveWitkoff got in touch with the Qataris to ask about the plane.
…The White House suggested at the time that #Trump’s tour of #Qatar’s plane was intended to put pressure on Boeing to speed its work on its new presidential jets.
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After #Trump looked at the plane, one thing
was clear: It was love at first sight.
Flying back to Washington on one of the existing #AirForceOne 747s,
he marveled at what he had seen of the interiors of #Qatar’s jet and talked about the plane as if getting it for his own use was a done deal. A new paint job, his allies figured, & few other quick upgrades, & it could be ready within the year for Trump.
…The Boeing jets that the US had ALREADY PAID FOR became a secondary focus…
By the time #Trump toured the aircraft on Feb. 15, discussions about how to acquire the plane had changed. The talk among senior aides to Trump shifted from a government-to-government sale to a *donation*.
That was a surprise to #AirForce officials. At no point, #Pentagon officials said, did the Air Force propose that the plane be donated.
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…Government officials in #Qatar — who had long wanted to unload the plane — had a different version of the sequence of events, according to a person familiar with their timeline.
They were willing to send the jet to Florida for #Trump to take a personal tour. But the expectation was that the plane would be sold to the United States, not offered as a gift.
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…But no specific terms of the planned deal have been made public, & the ability of a future *Trump library* to take possession of the plane remains murky. And ethical issues are not the only complication.
Even if the terms of the transfer are finalized, current & fmr #AirForce acquisition ofcls have cautioned that getting the Qatari plane ready to be used by #Trump would not be easy.
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Boeing has already spent 5 years transforming the 747 planes the #Pentagon bought into #AirForceOne jets, w/upgrades including communications capabilities, missile defense systems & other measures to protect the planes from an EMP that could be caused by a nuclear bomb.
Dozens of small cracks in the body of the planes—which are commonly found in the 747-8 #Qatar plane model as well—also had been identified & repaired.
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…“It’s a big beast,” Marc Foulkrod, an aerospace engineer who at one pointtried to help #Qatar sell the plane, said in an interview….
“Boeing made a great airplane, & it’s a classic piece when you do the VIP version,” said Foulkrod, who has a consulting firm that helps wealthy clients & heads of state buy jets.
But such planes have a limited number of buyers. “You might find that one-off guy that has a super ego that wants to buy one & ride around it,” Foulkrod said.
#Qatar’s plane has a luxurious interior, but considerable work would be needed to prep the plane to serve as #AirForceOne —including ridding the jet of any hidden electronic listening devices & adding advanced communications equipment & specialized systems to protect the plane from a missile attack or other threats. And even if the plane is donated, the cost of those retrofits would be enormous, acc/to current & fmr #Pentagon ofcls: at least $1 billion.
