‘Excited’ Trump inaugurates Qatar-gifted Air Force One with first flight

Aboard Air Force One — US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was thrilled to make his first flight aboard his new Air Force One plane, thanking Qatar for the controversial gift of the luxury jet.

Trump said the United States “couldn’t build a plane like this” — despite the fact that the heavily modified Boeing 747-8 aircraft was originally made there.

“To be honest with you, I’m excited about the first flight. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it,” Trump told journalists traveling with him ahead of a trip to North Dakota.

The 80-year-old president is due to attend an event at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library as part of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of American independence.

“They just completed it. They made it appropriate for a president, that means the security and all of the different bells and whistles they put on. Very complex stuff, but it’s really quite something,” Trump said at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

Critics have raised a host of ethical, constitutional and security concerns about the gifting of an aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars by a foreign power like Qatar.

The wealthy Gulf emirate, which is also playing a key role as a mediator in talks between the US and Iran, donated the jet last year. It has since undergone major modifications and testing.

The first flight also comes just a day after Trump faced further ethical scrutiny over filings that showed he earned around $1.2 billion dollars from his family’s cryptocurrency ventures in his first year back in power.

But Trump dismissed any suggestion of impropriety, saying the cost to US taxpayers of adapting the Qatari jet was “very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way.”

“Frankly, we couldn’t build a plane like this because we wouldn’t be willing to spend the kind of money necessary. They spent top dollars,” Trump told reporters.

Trump said he had asked the Emir of Qatar if he could use the plane, but “he said ‘no, no, I’d like to make a contribution to the country, so it was very nice.”

Gone is the trademark light blue hull that helped Air Force One blend into the sky. The refurbished jet is painted in Trump’s preferred color scheme: a navy-blue belly with red and gold stripes. It has the luxury features that the president believes a commander-in-chief’s entourage should have — plush carpets, lie-flat seats, wood paneling and a presidential seal on the seat belts, according to reported tours of the plane.

Trump told reporters that he was proud of the luxurious plane. “You can do two things: You can low-key it, or you can show it,” he said.

The retrofitted Qatari jet is intended to serve as a “bridge” between the aging Boeing jets that have served as Air Force One for the last 36 years and two new aircraft, which are years behind schedule and expected to be delivered in 2028 at the earliest. Trump toured the new jet just weeks after returning to the White House last year and directed that it be prepared for his use for the bulk of his remaining time in office.

The compressed timetable set by the president limited the modifications to the plane. Images of the jet captured since its unveiling and analyzed by the Associated Press show that it is not equipped with at least some of the same missile detection and countermeasure systems as the outgoing Cold War-era jets.

The Air Force has said that it did little to change the cabin layout of the plane and that it spent less than $400 million on security upgrades.

Jeremiah Gertler, a senior analyst for Teal Group, an aviation and defense consulting firm, said that this absence, as well as a seemingly smaller number of communications antennas, suggested that the Qatari jet is better suited to only work as a domestic aircraft.

“If you’re going on a long trip, you take the big fancy car, but if you’re just buzzing around town, you’ll settle for something less. Right? And this looks like it’s a domestic-only model,” Gertler said, speaking of the new jet.

“If the idea was to do it as quickly and inexpensively as possible, it would seem to lead to the notion that there’s less content” in the jet’s modifications, Gertler said.

Trump has said he plans to use the new plane next week when he travels to attend the NATO summit in Turkey.

The Air Force argued that the rapid conversion of the jet was done “without accepting any risk regarding security, safety, or secure communications,” but added that “several highly complex engineering modifications required for the final [Air Force One aircraft] were intentionally excluded from the Bridge aircraft.” The service acknowledged that it did not widen the doors leading out of the aircraft or include multiple stairs built into the hull of the plane.

A historic trip today. Very rarely does an Administration get to unveil a new Air Force One, a symbol of American strength and power across the world. Only President Trump could have made this a reality. pic.twitter.com/Xi54HkBDe9

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— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) July 2, 2026

Reporters are generally not permitted to take photos inside the plane unless Trump is present. But on Wednesday, Trump administration staffers shared images of the plane’s interior on social media.

Maiden voyage on the new Air Force One! pic.twitter.com/svD3StjUkk

— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) July 1, 2026

White House communications director Steven Cheung posted a photo of aides gathered around a circular table that had off-white place mats and leather captain’s chairs. Monica Crowley, the chief of US protocol, posted a picture of herself perched on a leather couch between a pair of Air Force One throw pillows. Mounted on the wall behind her was a framed photo of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

Maiden voyage aboard the NEW Air Force One! ✈️???????? pic.twitter.com/ZLzDnZQzLd

— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) July 1, 2026

“This is a gift from a country that has treated us very well,” Trump said.

Trump has said in the past that the Qatar plane would end up in a presidential library.