Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said on Monday he’s talked to Air Force officials about a plan to use the gifted Qatari jet as a helpful transition from the old Boeing 747 jet to the upgraded aircraft.
“If we can show the American people that there was a method and a reason why it is beneficial, in terms of this transition, I think that will help a lot,” Rounds said in an interview on CNN’s “The Source,” sidestepping a question on whether he is “ethically and optically” comfortable with President Trump flying on the gifted plane.
“I think there may very well be an argument made that, as we transition from the old 747, which are still in service, to the new 747, there’s a number of items that have to be included in each of the 747s,” he said.
“If we can build some of that and then transition it out of one 747 and then into the new one, there may very well be some benefits to that, while the old 747s are still flying,” the senator continued.
Rounds said details of the plans are forthcoming, noting much of it is “still classified, but there is a logic that a lot of people aren’t talking about yet. And I probably shouldn’t be breaking that story.”
The remarks come as the president has defended his decision to accept a luxury jet worth hundreds of millions of dollars from the Qatari government to replace Air Force One, while also dismissing bipartisan criticism as a “radical left story.”
“I just want to say, it was a radical left story,” Trump told Fox News’s Bret Baier in Abu Dhabi during a stop on his diplomatic trip to the Middle East last week. “The people here, to show you how crazy it is, they would like me to pay a billion dollars.”
“I made a good deal,” he added.
The Boeing 747-8 previously used by the Qatari royal family and estimated to be worth at least $400 million was gifted to the Pentagon to serve as a stand-in for the aging Air Force One fleet while the president is in office. It eventually will be decommissioned to Trump’s future presidential library.
