Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
President Trump obviously cares a lot about status and looks. This is a man who declared that his new White House flagpoles will only fly “top of the line” American flags and who once managed to body-shame an aircraft carrier. So it’s particularly irksome to Trump that’s he’s flying in the presidential equivalent of a ’90s minivan. And now, after a yearslong crusade to upgrade to a spiffy, new Air Force One, Trump has been forced to settle for buying a used jet.
The current Air Force One is actually two heavily modified 747s that went into service during George H.W. Bush’s presidency. During Trump’s first term, Boeing won a $3.9 billion contract to transform two 747-8s into the next generation of Air Force One, as The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. The Boeing planes were supposed to be ready by the end of 2024, but the project is years behind schedule and billions over budget.
So now, Trump has resorted to commissioning a smaller defense contractor, L3Harris, to turn an old jet used by the Qatari government into his temporary ride. The Journal reported on Thursday:
The U.S. government has commissioned L3Harris to overhaul a Boeing 747 formerly used by the Qatari government. The Melbourne, Fla.-based company is tasked with retrofitting the plane with certain specialized systems to transform the luxury aircraft into a presidential jet, some of the people said.
Trump wants to have the plane available for use as early as the fall, some of the people said. He has regularly asked for updates. On April 18, the CEO of Boeing came to the Oval Office to meet with Trump, people familiar with the meeting said.
Trump has been openly complaining about Boeing’s failure to deliver the new Air Force One, and in February he told reporters that he was considering buying a used jet:
“I’m not happy with the fact that it’s taking Boeing so long… I would not consider Airbus over Boeing. But I could buy that one that was used, and convert it. I could buy one from another country, perhaps”
— On Air Force One, Trump talks about replacement for Air Force One pic.twitter.com/N0O9mJNRC3
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) February 20, 2025
Around the November election, Boeing told federal officials that it might not have the new planes ready until around 2035, well after Trump leaves office. Trump White House officials have toyed with the idea of suing the company, according to the Journal:
Before Trump’s inauguration, White House Military Office and senior Air Force officials considered canceling Boeing’s contract for the new planes, according to people familiar with the matter. White House officials under Trump have also discussed whether they can sue the plane manufacturer, some of the people said.
And Trump even tried siccing Elon Musk on Boeing:
Soon after his election victory, Trump initiated a series of conversations with Boeing executives and enlisted Elon Musk to help speed up the Air Force One replacement jets with the hopes of being able to fly on the plane whose price he personally negotiated, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Musk demanded detailed information about the project even before Trump was in office, according to a person familiar with the request, which made some executives at Boeing uncomfortable. Musk then regularly called Boeing officials and visited the future Air Force One jets at the company’s San Antonio facility.
But it appears attempts to speed up Boeing’s process were unsuccessful. So for the rest of his presidency, Trump may be stuck with the temporary Qatari 747, which will be put into rotation with the two older Air Force One planes. At least it’s an upgrade from Trump’s personal plane, which, despite his claims to the contrary, is surprisingly crappy.
