White House Says No Final Decision on $400 Million Qatar Jet After Trump Term
Updated
Updated · abcnews.com · Aug 6
White House Says No Final Decision on $400 Million Qatar Jet After Trump Term
3 articles · Updated · abcnews.com · Aug 6
Summary
A White House official said no final decision has been made on the future of the Qatar-donated Boeing 747-8 after Donald Trump leaves office, undercutting his earlier pledge to send it to his presidential library.
Eric Trump also told NBC that transferring the jet to the Miami library is "not the plan at the moment," suggesting an older decommissioned Air Force One could go there instead.
The aircraft, valued at about $400 million, has been used as the new Air Force One while undergoing classified security and communications retrofits that the Air Force last year estimated would cost under $400 million.
The jet's fate remains politically sensitive because the unprecedented foreign gift drew scrutiny from lawmakers and ethics experts, and questions persist over whether it could be kept for personal use, retained for the next president or handled another way.