President Trump was entranced. It was a couple of weeks into his second time period, and he was on the tarmac of the Palm Beach airport, getting a tour of a luxurious Boeing 747-8 that had been flown from Doha for his perusal.
The double-decker jet, which had been outfitted for the Qatari royal household, had a spacious bed room adorned with leather-based and wooden and a lounge that includes a chandelier and one other with suede seats.
Two planes being constructed by Boeing to substitute the growing old Air Force One fleet had been years delayed, and Mr. Trump’s workforce had requested the Air Force to discover a short-term plane. This was the one, the president determined.
Mr. Trump’s February 2025 tour of the Qatari jet led to a frantic dash inside the White House and the Pentagon. The administration sought to improve the airplane in time to meet his demand for it to be prepared by the nation’s 250th birthday this summer season, with an accelerated retrofit.
An investigation by The New York Times discovered that the president’s push to get the luxurious plane shortly led to ballooning prices and trade-offs in security options that probably left Mr. Trump and others who journey with him on Air Force One weak.
Among the findings:
Mr. Trump was personally engaged in making selections about the retrofitting of the donated airplane, giving the closing approval on the options and safety measures that will be included, in accordance to individuals accustomed to his position. They and others interviewed for this text described the delicate details about the course of and the airplane on the situation of anonymity.
Several key safety and security options on the Boeing planes which have been used for many years as Air Force One are usually not seen on the upgraded jet, together with a lower-level exit for high-risk conditions, extra backup energy capability and a complicated antimissile system, public Air Force data and pictures examined by The Times present. The planes presently being constructed to function the everlasting presidential fleet are all set to have such features, federal data present.
The 747-8 airplane was overhauled on a compressed timeline of nearly eight months. Experts stated the jet would have wanted a number of years for a full improve.
Because the Qatari jet was being pushed into service so shortly, some White House officers initially anticipated it might solely be used for home journey or to go to allied nations with U.S. navy bases.
The authorities spent lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to purchase equipment wanted to prepare pilots to fly the 747-8 airplane so shortly, on high of the roughly $400 million value of the upgrades that the administration has publicly acknowledged. The Pentagon has tried to masks the complete price ticket — together with from Congress — by taking the funds from a classified budget for nuclear modernization.
The truncated overhaul of the jet got here after Qatar agreed to give it to the Defense Department as a present. It is ultimately slated to go to Mr. Trump’s presidential library, an unorthodox donation that has been criticized as a manner for the Middle Eastern nation to curry favor with the president.
The safety trade-offs of the new Air Force One burst into public view when Mr. Trump was pressured to fly out of Turkey earlier this month on a distinct jet, a swap made at the urging of the Secret Service after officers identified a reputable menace to him by Iranian proxy forces. The New York Times then reported that the new airplane lacks a few of the similar defensive countermeasures as the earlier mannequin.
It is unclear what safety measures, together with new air-defense applied sciences, might have been integrated onto the airplane, which the administration has maintained is protected. Nevertheless, the White House announced this week that the Qatari-donated jet could be taken out of service this fall for unspecified “upgrades and enhancements.”
“PLANEMAXXING,” the White House declared in a social media post touting the transfer.
The reversal exposes the potential dangers that the authorities took to fulfill Mr. Trump’s demand for an plane befitting the grandeur he believes ought to accompany his workplace. Experts accustomed to the Air Force One program stated they had been shocked Mr. Trump had determined to use the Qatari-donated airplane for abroad journeys.
“People need to be aware it has a lot of shortfalls compared to Air Force One; they do add a measure of risk,” stated Frank Kendall, who supervised the presidential airplane modernization challenge, first as the Pentagon acquisition chief after which the Air Force secretary below President Joseph R. Biden Jr. from 2021 till January 2025.
But for Mr. Trump, having to use decades-old planes that incessantly wanted repairs was a humiliation. The two 747 jets had been in service since the early Nineties, when the first of them carried President George H.W. Bush from Washington, D.C., to Topeka, Kansas.
“When you land and you see Saudi Arabia, and you see U.A.E., and you see Qatar and you see all these — and they have these brand-new Boeing 747s mostly, and you see ours next to it, this is like a totally different plane,” Mr. Trump informed Sean Hannity throughout an interview on a flight to the Middle East in May 2025. He added: “And we’re the United States of America. I believe that we should have the most impressive plane.”
Air Force officers have stated the speedy retrofitting of the Qatari airplane was a hit, describing it as protected, safe and geared up with the most superior applied sciences.
“A testament to the Air Force’s ability to innovate and rapidly evolve to ensure the continuity of our government under any conditions,” Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, the Air Force’s chief of employees, stated in a statement in May.
The White House has additionally maintained that the Qatari jet poses no threat the president and his entourage. In an announcement this week, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, known as the new airplane “fully mission-ready and safe for presidential travel today.” She stated the enhancements it was set to obtain this fall would “ensure it remains the most advanced, secure and capable aircraft in the world.”
Fixated on Air Force One
It was December 2016, shortly after Mr. Trump’s first election, and he was being briefed on the lengths that the navy goes to harden Air Force One.
In a gathering at Mar-a-Lago, Air Force Gen. Carlton D. Everhart II informed the incoming president about the “complex and unique systems” required of the Boeing planes “to ensure survivability and reliability,” in accordance to a replica of a once-secret presentation, reported on earlier by TWZ, a web site that covers the Pentagon.
General Everhart described how Air Force One served as a cellular command middle for President George W. Bush throughout the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults.
Mr. Everhart, who’s now retired, stated in an interview that Mr. Trump requested about the plans for a modernized Air Force One, expressing confidence about his personal experience.
“I know about my airplane, because I fly all the time,” Mr. Trump informed him, as Mr. Everhart recalled, referring to his personal airplane informally known as Trump Force One.
Mr. Trump remained fixated on Air Force One when he regained the White House. Just weeks after his re-election in 2024, Mr. Trump despatched the tech entrepreneur Elon Musk to a Boeing airplane hangar in Texas the place the two jets had been slowly being remodeled.
Mr. Musk’s task was to discover a manner to pace up the Boeing effort, as he and others believed the challenge had gotten slowed down by excessively strict safety clearance necessities for a few of the staff not concerned in delicate options of the airplane.
But the Trump transition workforce additionally requested the Air Force for a backup plan, in accordance to former and present Air Force officers: to scour Boeing’s listing of all 747-8 airplanes in service to see if there was one other in the world that may very well be shortly procured for Mr. Trump.
Military officers had been already involved about the variety of repairs wanted for the growing old planes in the presidential fleet. The 747-8, the newest mannequin of the Boeing jet, is totally different than the one which had been used for many years as Air Force One. It has modernized digital flight controls, a redesigned wing system and engines and a bigger cabin and higher deck, amongst different adjustments. The Air Force restricted the selection to this airplane as a result of it has 4 engines, providing an extra margin of security if one failed.
But even after locating the Qatari jet, the Air Force knew that it might value greater than $1 billion and take years to set up the similar options as the planes constructed to function Air Force One, in accordance to Mr. Kendall and different former Air Force officers.
Pentagon documents present that these Boeing jets should endure a sequence of main structural adjustments to be a part of the presidential fleet. Holes have to be fastidiously lower into the fuselage to construct a decrease entryway, permitting the president to exit and enter in much less safe environments. An “autonomous baggage loading” system has to be added to cut back the reliance on international floor crews.
Hundreds of miles {of electrical} wiring and digital elements have to be shielded from an electromagnetic pulse, akin to from a nuclear weapon detonation.
The official planes additionally require a second small engine — referred to as an auxiliary energy unit — to be put in close to the rear of the jet to function a backup for communication programs and different important electronics gear. They additionally want a few of the most superior communications gear and what the Pentagon has known as a “self-defense system.”
The missile protection programs embrace infrared countermeasures, which might detect, monitor and jam incoming missile threats and are put in on the airplane’s wings close to the engines and its tail, in accordance to detailed schematics of the planes ready for emergency responders.
All the upgrades are “inherently expensive,” one Air Force briefing said, outstripping the roughly $400 million the navy initially estimated it might value only for the two jets.
The newest complete estimate: $5.1 billion for the total modernization effort, now slated to be accomplished in 2028 — 13 years after the Air Force first decided to depend on 747-8 jets for the challenge.
A Push for Speed
Inside the Oval Office, the place Mr. Trump shows a mannequin of a gleaming new Air Force One airplane, the president was assessing plans to retrofit the Qatari jet.
Over a sequence of conferences final yr, navy officers offered him with printouts outlining the varied modifications. The president weighed in on decisions for the inside décor and exterior paint shade and signed off on the security measures and communication programs, in accordance to individuals accustomed to the discussions.
Mr. Trump additionally made it very clear: He needed the airplane in time for America’s 250th birthday, on July 4, 2026.
Early on, White House officers had anticipated the upgrades would take 18 to 24 months. Once the timeline was truncated, some officers believed Mr. Trump would solely use the retrofitted Qatari jet for home journey or to allied nations in protected areas.
By the time the Air Force got ownership of the airplane in August, it had lower than a yr.
On Aug. 8, the 747-8 lifted off from Fort Worth, Texas, the place it had been saved for months, and landed in Waco, the dwelling of a sprawling advanced owned by L3Harris, a navy contractor chosen to retrofit the Qatari airplane. The phrases of the contract and the complete worth haven’t been made public.
Executives at L3Harris stated that even earlier than beginning main work on the airplane, it was looked for any listening units or different electronics which may have been put in earlier than the United States took possession of it.
It was “a very rigorous process, really in advance of us even working on it,” stated Jason Lambert, the president of L3Harris’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance division, in a June interview with Breaking Defense, an business commerce publication. He added that the course of was “performed by our electronic warfare experts in conjunction with the U.S. government’s leaders in cybersecurity to fully inspect and ensure that everything within that aircraft was safe for the mission.”
The firm assigned as many as 400 staff, working round the clock over three shifts, to supercharge the effort.
A high precedence: adding a secure communications system so the airplane might function a worldwide command middle.
But from the begin, it was clear there could be some limits on what they may do, Mr. Lambert informed Breaking Defense. The inside of the airplane would get the presidential seal and new wooden and leather-based furnishings, he stated. But main changes akin to transferring bulkheads or mounted buildings inside the plane weren’t doable.
Documents examined by The Times present different options had been additionally ignored.
For many years, Air Force One has allowed the president to arrive at and depart any airport with out having to depend on customary floor gear.
The airplane has had a decrease aspect door with self-contained stairs, which is simpler to defend. Mr. Trump used that entrance whereas boarding the outdated Air Force One final October after the Secret Service found what it suspected was a hunter’s stand hidden at the fringe of the Palm Beach, Fla., airport.
Mr. Bush additionally used the decrease stairs on Sept. 11, 2001, when he landed unexpectedly at an Air Force base in Louisiana, with navy personnel armed with machine weapons serving to guard him.
But the retrofitted Qatari jet has no such entrance or the same rear door with self-contained stairs, in accordance to specialists who examined images of the airplane for The Times.
Administration officers didn’t dispute that. There was a “reduction of the number of airstairs” for autonomous entry and exit, a Pentagon official informed The Times.
Photographs of the retrofitted Qatari jet additionally don’t present the infrared countermeasures programs which are put in close to the engines of the outdated Air Force One and documented in the schematics ready for emergency responders.
Such infrared units are designed to detect any approaching missile threats, begin instantly monitoring them and ship a high-intensity laser beam into the approaching missile to disrupt its method, according to one manufacturer.
It is unclear what different self-defense expertise might have been added to the Qatari-donated jet. The administration declined to deal with its safety capabilities. A White House official known as it “secure and well-protected” and stated that officers had been all the time on the lookout for methods to modernize air protection programs.
The Air Force One jets are additionally supposed to have two auxiliary energy items designed to present electrical energy if there’s a energy disruption, even whereas the airplane is in flight.
Only considered one of these items is seen on the new airplane, whereas two are seen on the outdated Air Force One. A federal official confirmed that the second unit was not put in on the Qatari jet; the White House didn’t dispute it was absent.
It is unclear how L3Harris or the Air Force addressed a separate concern that has plagued the Boeing jets: cracks in longitudinal rods that stiffen and help the fuselage pores and skin.
Since 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration has warned the cracks create an “unsafe condition” that “could adversely affect the structural integrity of the airplane.” It ordered house owners of 747-8 planes to examine for such cracks and restore any.
Multiple reports filed with the F.A.A. and Air Force audits element the costly and time-consuming efforts to discover and repair the cracks in the planes that it’s constructing to function Air Force One jets. Some solely grew to become obvious when the planes had been stripped down to their frames.
Referring to the Qatari-donated airplane, the White House official stated the plane may have these efforts accomplished as required by the F.A.A., though it didn’t say if such fixes had been made. L3Harris didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The airplane has one other complication: sideways-facing seats. An F.A.A. security rule mandates that planes with uncommon seat preparations carry out particular checks with crash-test dummies to be sure that passengers wouldn’t be injured throughout emergency landings.
Documents obtained by The Times present {that a} subcontractor working on the plane filed paperwork searching for a “special condition” approval from the F.A.A. permitting it to fly.
On July 1, the first day that Mr. Trump was touring on the new Air Force One, the F.A.A. revealed a public notice that the request had been authorised days earlier.
Similar approvals have been granted for different Boeing 747-8 planes used as luxurious carriers. But Sandy Murdock, a former F.A.A. chief counsel, stated the approval appeared to be granted simply in time for Mr. Trump to fly on the airplane.
The White House official stated the Air Force had labored with the F.A.A. to guarantee the “all Air Force aircraft are safe to fly and operate.”
The rushed course of additionally led to prices far past the roughly $400 million in taxpayer cash that the Air Force estimated could be spent to retrofit the jet.
During that course of, the Air Force had to speed up coaching for its pilots, as the 747-8 has a distinct cockpit than the outdated jets. To accomplish that, the Air Force leased an Atlas Air cargo 747-8 jet from October till February, a airplane that prices hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, to use for “interim pilot qualification training,” data present. The Air Force didn’t disclose how a lot it paid for the lease.
Given the tight deadline, the Air Force then moved in December to purchase one more 747-8, this one from Lufthansa to function a “dedicated trainer aircraft for aircrew” in order that the Pentagon had “immediate operational readiness,” the Air Force stated in an announcement. It additionally bought a second one to provide spare components. The complete value for each: one other $400 million, an Air Force official stated.
Both jets might be helpful as soon as the new Boeing Air Force One planes are in service. But the want to purchase them so shortly was pushed by the arrival of the Qatari jet, the Air Force has stated.
The administration has declined to say how the total challenge has been financed. But Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink acknowledged in Senate testimony that the authorities was utilizing funds from a nuclear modernization program known as Sentinel. Last summer season, $934 million was transferred from that program to an unnamed categorised challenge, as The Times previously reported.
Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, has repeatedly pressed Trump administration officers for details about the prices and safety programs of the short-term Air Force One. He stated the funding maneuver was an effort to keep away from scrutiny.
“We routinely discuss the cost of the existing Air Force One modifications,” Mr. Murphy stated. “But they have declared this work to be a national security secret that cannot be divulged even to appropriators. That is absolutely unacceptable.”
A Security Threat
This spring, Mr. Trump’s dream airplane lastly took to the air once more.
At 2:36 p.m. on April 16, simply eight months after work started on the jet, it started flying in circles round Texas and Louisiana. Six extra check flights adopted that month.
By May 1, the Air Force was prepared to declare a victory of types. “VC-25B Bridge aircraft has officially completed modification and flight testing and is being painted,” the Air Force said in an announcement, referring to the formal navy title for the retrofitted Qatari jet.
But navy officers additionally acknowledged that they went with out sure parts. Overall, the Air Force stated, “no risk was taken in security, safety or mission communications, but the collective team made trades on some of the less commonly used mission sets,” with out offering particulars.
The airplane was moved to a warehouse to be painted. Rather than utilizing the trademark robin’s egg blue and white design commissioned in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy, Mr. Trump needed a shade scheme of purple, white, gold and darkish blue.
“The baby blue doesn’t fit with us,” he informed Fox News.
The Air Force had beforehand rejected this change pushed by Mr. Trump in his first term, concluding that the darker shade “added heat in certain environments” and probably disrupt delicate digital elements put in in the decrease a part of the airplane.
But Mr. Trump overrode these objections. He had been exhibiting off a mannequin Air Force One with the new paint scheme for years, each at his Mar-a-Lago membership and even at considered one of his 2025 inaugural balls.
Mr. Trump was effusive final month as he regarded over the retrofitted airplane, parked inside a hanger at a navy base in Maryland.
Standing under his new jet, the president took out considered one of his Sharpies and signed his title on a mechanical panel on its stomach, whereas the music “Y.M.C.A.,” a Trump rally anthem, blasted on speakers.
“This is a plane that the United States of America should have,” Mr. Trump stated July 1 as he ready to board to take it on a debut flight to North Dakota.
Days later, he flew the new Air Force One to Turkey to attend a NATO assembly.
While he was in Ankara, the United States resumed airstrikes on the neighboring nation of Iran. The battle was simply 1,000 miles away from the president.
Early in the morning of July 8, a navy official shared dangerous information with Mr. Trump, who was in his suite at the JW Marriott, in accordance to an individual accustomed to the state of affairs. U.S. officers judged there to be a credible threat that Iranian proxy forces had been concentrating on him. The Secret Service needed to change the plans for his departure.
That morning, Mr. Trump introduced that the Qatari-donated airplane would fly forward to Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United Kingdom so U.S. service members might see it.
The president, who would later get again on the Qatari jet in England, made no point out of the safety menace when he announced the change on Truth Social.
For his half, Mr. Trump would fly out of Ankara on the outdated Air Force One, he wrote, “for old time’s sake.”
Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, Greg Kendall-Ball and Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.
