Trump to Use Qatari Jet Despite Security Concerns
President Donald Trump will fly the Qatari-donated Boeing 747 to Ireland next week, putting the aircraft back on an overseas route before additional security upgrades Trump announced in July have been carried out, a senior White House official said.
It will be his first foreign trip on the plane since U.S. intelligence about a possible Iranian attack led him to leave Turkey aboard a smaller Air Force jet instead, The Washington Post reported.
Two months ago, Trump said the aircraft would be pulled from service and "maxed out." No timetable for that work has been made public, and it could now wait until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Karoline Leavitt, then the White House press secretary, told the Post the work would begin in the fall and take about four weeks — a schedule outside specialists have called improbable for countermeasures of that complexity.
A senior administration official declined to discuss the plane's current configuration.
"We don't comment on specific upgrades or modifications to Air Force One," the official said 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."
Trump is expected to use the jet through the fall campaign. He is set to headline a Republican gathering in Dallas next week and has said he intends to visit Alaska and other states with competitive races before Election Day.
Questions remain about whether the converted Qatari jumbo jet carries protections comparable to those engineered into the 747-200Bs that have flown presidents for more than three decades.
The aircraft's modifications have cost $400 million so far, and the administration has not estimated what further work would cost. By comparison, the Government Accountability Office puts the cost of modifying two 747s the Air Force ordered from Boeing in 2017 above $5.6 billion. Those planes may not be finished before Trump leaves office in January 2029, and lawmakers have pressed the administration to explain the disparity.
Trump began using the Qatari plane in early July, including for a flight to the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt presidential library in North Dakota. The NATO summit in Ankara was its first foreign assignment.
According to the Post, Trump boarded the older presidential 747 before television cameras for the return trip, then was driven to an Air Force C-32A in a catering truck. He flew to Britain with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and a handful of aides while the other aircraft carried Cabinet officials, staff, and reporters, most unaware of the switch.
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