Posted on 06/18/2026 9:50:22 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Top White House officials on Thursday morning bade farewell to a jet that has carried U.S. presidents around the world for 35 years, as the Trump administration prepares to replace it with a Boeing 747 donated by Qatar to serve as Air Force One.
As President Donald Trump and his staff returned from France after 3 a.m. on Thursday morning, White House communications director Steven Cheung and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino posted photos of one of the highly customized, heavily fortified Boeing 747-200B jumbo jets that are called Air Force One when carrying the president.
“Well done, good and faithful servant,” Cheung wrote on X, captioning the photo as “The Last Ride.”
The White House did not immediately comment on the transition, but the Air Force announced last month that the Qatari jet had completed modification and flight testing.
The transition will cap more than a year of controversy as backlash from Democrats and some Republicans criticized the highly unusual arrangement with Qatar, which has raised ethical, legal and national security concerns.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accepted the $400 million jet as an unconditional “donation” to the Defense Department, which is responsible for its maintenance.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Thank you! Rationality is still alive at FR
I don’t understand how we can take a 747 from Qatar and have it ready for the President in one year, but Boeing is taking a decade to build two brand new ones? How can that be? Well, we know the answer, but you would think that you could just build two 747s and then modify them like they just did with the Qatari 747. It’s mind-boggling.
No I was comparing the Qatar jet and the Statue of liberty as gifts to the USA from other countries. I thought that was self explanatory. Apparently not to you. 😄
Let me kindergarten this for you. The Qatar jet is a gift to the American people as it is being gifted to the United States Military not Donald J. Trump personally. The United States military by extension is the people.
The jet is for the use of the President of the United States now and presidents in the future. Its also $400 million tax dollars saved. $400 million to the Qatar’s is like $20 to you and me.
Go ahead and contribute your life savings to FR because Trump isn’t keeping plane after he leaves office. 😆
“Rationality is still alive at FR”
Barely! 😆
Because it's not a permanent plane but we'll be using it for the next two years until the replacement is ready.
As I understand it, this aircraft is for temporary service, domestic presidential flights only.
If we need a new plane, we need a new plan. Biden was too demented to realize he needed to order one years in advance..
Be neat if it had an escape pod?.
Actually, the plan is for this jet to become part of DJT's presidential library after he leaves office.
I’m not sure he can do that.
You might want to bring this to his attention. (He not only thinks he can do it; he plans to.)
They stripped the interior of the plane down to the bare frame and inspected every inch of it. There’s no bugs on it.
Hope it’s not as riddled with listening devices as the US embassy building in Russia was back in the 1990s
I know a lot of you kneejerk defend Trump, but this is clearly an emolument under the Constitution, and forbidden.
Literally a ‘gift’ from foreign royalty to Trump. Then WE spend hundreds of million$ stripping it down and rebuilding it to AF1 standards. It will fly POTUS around for a couple of years and then be ‘gifted’ to Trump for his use.
Yes I know...it’s going to his library...but it is still for his use and is of no benefit to the country. Sorry, I have to call it like I see it.
It's unseemly; there's no question about it.
There are stockbrokers and licensed insurance agents breaking their back to make an honest living; it is unimaginable that their firms would allow them to ever receive a gift of comparable worth from anyone who isn't a family member.
Trump’s message to Boeing: “Shape Up! You’re creating worse of a mess!”
For some reason my gut tells me that this AF1 deal should have been passed.
We have B52s in service that are twice as old as the presidential 747s but we can’t extend the life of a plane that barely has any cycles on it? How often does the thing even fly?
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