July 27 (UPI) — The United States government and Qatar will finalize a deal next week for Qatar to give the U.S. Air Force a jet to become Air Force One.
Qatar will send the Boeing 747-8 aircraft as an unconditional “donation” to the Department of Defense, which will then be responsible for its maintenance, the Washington Post reported.
The agreement, dated July 7, was signed by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defense Affairs Soud bin Abulrahaman Al-Thani.
Once the deal is finished, the Air Force can begin renovating the plane to become Air Force One. The process is projected to take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The jet itself is valued at $400 million and will go to President Donald Trump’s presidential library after his term is over.
“They knew about it because they buy Boeings, they buy a lot of Boeings, and they knew about it, and they said, we would like to do something,” Trump said.
“And if we can get a 747 as a contribution to our Defense Department to use during a couple of years while they’re building the other ones, I think that was a very nice gesture. Now I could be a stupid person and say, ‘Oh no, we don’t want a free plane.'”
The cost of the renovation is classified, but The New York Times has reported that the budget may be tucked into parts of the Department of Defense’s budget. The Times cites a “mysterious” $934 million transfer from the over-budget modernization of America’s aging, ground-based nuclear missiles.
Article I of the U.S. Constitution prevents the president from accepting a gift or emolument from a “King, Prince, or foreign State,” without congressional consent.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., said in May that he sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office pushing for an investigation into the Trump administration accepting a plane as a gift.
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