Air Force One as a security problem: How Trump defends his gift from Qatar

US PresidentDonald Trump (78) has expressed his openness to accepting a luxury aircraft as a gift from the family of the Emir of Qatar. He described the gift as a "very nice gesture." The approximately $400 million Boeing 747-8 aircraft will be upgraded to the presidential aircraft, Air Force One, and donated to his presidential foundation after Trump leaves office, according to several US media outlets. There has been no official announcement from Qatar so far.

When asked whether Qatar was demanding something in return, Trump simply said he greatly appreciated Qatar's "great gesture." He said he wasn't someone who would turn down such an offer. "I mean, I could be a fool and say, 'No, we don't want a free, very expensive plane.' But I thought it was a great gesture," Trump said before the start of his Middle East trip.

The Qataris would give the US a free jet, Trump said. He could now say he'd rather pay $1 billion or $400 million. "Or I could say, 'Thank you very much.'" He emphasized that the Boeing was officially a gift to the US Department of Defense. The aircraft would go to his presidential library after his term; he would not use it privately.

US security experts, however, consider Trump's idea completely absurd. It would cost enormous sums to inspect and upgrade a plane donated by a foreign state to become Air Force One. Richard Aboulafia, an air defense expert and consultant, told the US journal Defense News that Air Force One is not a flying palace with golden walls designed to allow the US president to travel in as much comfort as possible. Instead, Air Force One is a flying command center that not only has to be secure against eavesdropping, but is also equipped with high-tech and various defense systems for emergencies.

"This whole gift discussion is based on a misunderstanding," says Aboulafia. It's impossible to simply upgrade a civilian Boeing 747 into a functional presidential aircraft within a few weeks. Either the upgrade would be extremely time-consuming and expensive, or it would expose the President and Commander in Chief to an unacceptable security risk.

The Air Force One currently used by the president is 13 years old. The US company Boeing was supposed to deliver a successor aircraft, but production was delayed. A successor is now expected to be ready by 2029 at the latest, but according to recent information, Boeing now wants to bring forward delivery to 2027. Too late, according to Trump, who already argued with Boeing about production costs during his first term in office and now apparently believes he has found a cost-effective solution with the aircraft from Qatar. There is no information yet on how expensive and time-consuming the upgrade of the aircraft would ultimately be.

The US President is traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates until Thursday. The planned gift could be officially announced during Trump's stay in Qatar. The plan would raise legal and ethical questions. It is questionable whether the Trump administration is allowed to accept such an expensive gift from a foreign partner, reported the US broadcaster ABC. However, various government legal departments have reviewed the plan and have likely approved it.

Constitutional lawyers, however, are sounding the alarm. "This incident is unprecedented," said Jessica Levinson , a constitutional law expert at Loyola Law School. "We've never tested these boundaries before."

The Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting anything of value or "honors" from foreign governments without congressional approval. "This is a classic example of what the founders of the country worried about," said Richard Painter , a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former White House ethics chief under Bush. "But I don't think the founders anticipated it would be this bad."

Trump already faced a legal dispute over honorifics during his first term when he opened the doors of his Washington, D.C., hotel to lobbyists, businessmen, and diplomats. His lawyers argued that the founders did not intend to prohibit transactions involving the exchange of a service, such as hotel rooms, for money, but only direct gifts. However, some ethics lawyers disagreed, and it's unclear whether Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and other countries paid full price or more for use of the hotel.

During his second term, Trump's family business remained very active abroad. In December, it signed a deal for two Trump-branded real estate projects in Riyadh with a Saudi company with which it had partnered two years earlier for a Trump golf resort and villas in Oman. And in Qatar, the Trump Organization announced another Trump coastal resort last month.

Four Democratic senators on the Foreign Relations Committee— Brian Schatz , Chris Coons , Cory Booker , and Chris Murphy —issued a statement saying Trump's plan creates a clear conflict of interest, raises serious national security questions, invites foreign interference, and undermines public trust in government. "No one—not even the president—is above the law," they said.

A new Boeing 747-8 has a list price (as of 2019) of more than $400 million (€355 million). According to US media, the aircraft in question is more than a decade old. The two current presidential aircraft have been in service since the 1990s.

As a flying office, one aircraft and a similarly configured backup aircraft are specifically tailored to the needs of the US President. They feature state-of-the-art communications technology and anti-missile defenses on board, and can be refueled in mid-air.