President Trump said he could be flying on the new Air Force One, a retrofitted plane that was gifted by Qatar, as early as February.
He said he would be flying on the plane “much sooner” than the other planes being built by Boeing to serve as presidential aircraft.
“Now, they’re not normal 747’s. They have a lot of things on them that another plane wouldn’t have, but we’ll get this one a year-and-a-half, two years earlier,” Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington from Scotland.
He said he didn’t know how much it would cost taxpayers for the plane to be retrofitted, and that it would be up to the military.
“It’s their plane, you know the Air Force, they’ll be spending an amount of money,” Mr. Trump said.
He called it “one of the best planes in the world.”
The Defense Department announced in May that it decided to accept the 747 jetliner gift from the government of Qatar and that it will be upgraded to serve as Mr. Trump’s plane. The plane has been estimated to cost $400 million.
The plan is for the aircraft to be donated to his presidential library after Mr. Trump leaves office.
Questions arose over the ethics surrounding the expensive gift. Rep. Ritchie Torres, New York Democrat, sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office this month, noting the price tag of the gift and slamming it as “flying grift.”
Mr. Trump criticized the comments, suggesting people were making too big a deal over the gift.
“So the fact that the Defense 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. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!! MAGA,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social in May,
Mr. Trump has expressed annoyance over a deal he struck in his first term to modernize two Boeing 747s to be used as the new Air Force One. That contract has gone billions over budget and has been plagued by delays.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.