‘A flying palace’: Trump set to accept $600 million luxury 747 from Qatar

Washington: The Trump administration intends to accept a Boeing 747-8 jumbo – valued at more than $US400 million ($620 million) and described as “a flying palace” – from the Qatari royal family that would be outfitted to serve as Air Force One.

It would be one of the most valuable gifts ever received by the US government.

US President Donald Trump toured a Qatari-owned 747-8 in Florida in February.Credit: AP

The luxury jet would eventually be donated to President Donald Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office, allowing him to continue using it as a private citizen, the American ABC News reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

In a post on his social media site Truth Social on Monday (AEST), Trump appeared to confirm the proposal.

“So the fact that the Defence Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40-year-old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” he wrote.

Democrats and good government advocates condemned the reported plan, saying it raised massive ethical and legal concerns.

“Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X. “It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that “any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws”.

“President Trump’s administration is committed to full transparency,” she said.

A Qatari spokesperson, Ali al-Ansari, told The New York Times that news reports about the gift were “inaccurate” because the possible transfer of the aircraft was still under consideration and “no decision has been made”.

President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One in Miami in 2017.Credit: AP

Trump has expressed frustration at delays in the delivery of two new 747-8 aircraft to serve as an updated Air Force One. During his first term, Trump had reached a deal with Boeing to deliver the jets in 2024. A US Air Force official told Congress last week that Boeing had proposed finishing the planes by 2027.

Trump toured the Qatari-owned 747-8 – which is a little over a decade old – in February when it was parked at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

At the time, the White House said the president did so to get a better understanding of how the updated Air Force One planes would be configured.

The New York Times reported that the plane being donated by Qatar was expected to be retrofitted by a military contractor called L3Harris, in Texas, citing a senior US government official. Assuming the transfer of the plane goes forward, it is expected to be finished being equipped with military capabilities by the end of the year.

Trump has been frustrated by delays in the delivery of new 747-8 aircraft to serve as an updated Air Force One.Credit: Getty Images

Trump’s own private plane, known as “Trump Force One”, is an older 757 jet that first flew in the early 1990s, The New York Times reported.

In a statement, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a good government organisation based in Washington, questioned whether the transfer might violate the Constitution’s ban on US officials accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval.

“This sure looks like a foreign country that the president has personal business dealings [with] giving the president a $US400 million gift right before he meets with their head of state,” spokesman Jordan Libowitz said.

The American ABC reported, citing sources, that lawyers for the White House counsel’s office and the Department of Justice had prepared an analysis concluding it would be legal and constitutional for the Defence Department to accept the plane as a gift and later transfer it to Trump’s presidential library.

Trump is set to visit Qatar during a trip to the Middle East this week.

Reuters

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