President Trump, in an interview Friday, again 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 this 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.
The arrangement has raised ethical and security questions from Democratic and Republican lawmakers and Trump accused Baier of piling on.
The president countered in the interview that he’s not the beneficiary of the gift — but that it is a present to the federal government and the plane will be “old” by the time it goes to his personal repository. He cited former President Reagan’s Air Force One on display at his library in Pasadena, Calif.
“This goes to the United States Air Force for whoever is president, and at some point, it’ll be like Ronald Reagan. It’ll be decommissioned, because they won’t want it,” he told the host.
Reagan’s plane was decommissioned to the Reagan Foundation in 2001, three years before the former president died at the age of 93 and 12 years after he left office. The construction of the two Boeing 747s currently used as Air Force One began during Reagan’s tenure.
The Defense Department already has a contract with Boeing to build two new replacement planes for the official presidential fleet.
“We need a plane for a couple of years before we get the other ones, because Boeing is very late,” Trump said. “They should be able to knock them off in no time.”
He stressed that the other two Air Force One jets will be ready “by that time” when the Qatar-gifted jet is decommissioned to his library’s possession.
“And they will be brand-new planes, et cetera,” the president added.
Trump previously said it would be “stupid” to turn away the pricey gift from a foreign government and he is uncomfortable with the image of the U.S. having a plane that isn’t as “impressive” as the ones other world leaders use.
“When you look at a new 747, and you look at a plane that’s 42 years old, not even the same plane, the other ones are bigger and sleeker and sharper. And it doesn’t look right,” he told Baier on “Special Report.”
He also acknowledged in the interview that he had asked Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani about the gift and the backlash in the U.S. during a news conference earlier in the week.
“I think he was insulted, actually,” Trump replied. “He made a gift to help somebody that has helped them.”
