Trump’s So-Called ‘Free’ $400 Million Plane Would Actually Cost Taxpayers Nearly $1 Billion

President Donald Trump is set to receive a Boeing 747 from the nation of Qatar, reportedly worth between $250 million and $400 million, in a move that is definitely NOT corrupt at all. Not one bit. The way Trump tells it, he’d be a fool to turn down such a nice gift, offered purely out of the goodness of Qatar’s heart, and in doing so, he’ll be saving taxpayers money. Except turning a plane into Air Force One requires a lot more than a tacky gold livery and would, in fact, likely cost taxpayers close to $1 billion, CNN reports.

How would a free plane end up costing taxpayers so much money? Well, since it’s a plane that’s already in service and currently owned by another country — one Trump previously said has “historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level,” even — it’s a flying national security nightmare. Checking it for bugs and other security vulnerabilities alone would reportedly require tearing the thing down to the studs and evaluating every single component before putting it all back together. If Qatari intelligence wants to know our state secrets, it needs to read Pete Hegseth’s Signal chats like every other foreign intelligence agency.

“You would want to check the airplane out completely – strip it down, check for bugs, things like that, harden it to make sure nobody could hijack the electronics on the airplane … The ability for the president to command and control his military in the worst days, that takes a lot,” an unnamed “retired senior military official familiar with Air Force One” told CNN.

On top of getting rid of all the spying equipment and making sure the new, temporary Air Force One can’t be remotely blown out of the sky, Trump’s new “palace in the sky” will also need new Presidential-grade communications equipment so his staff can work while 10,000 Tariff Grandpa eats McDonald’s and binges Fox News. It would also require security upgrades that go far beyond protecting electronics and communications. Air Force One also needs to be able to defend itself from physical attacks, since it would typically be a bad look for the President’s plane to get shot out of the sky. 

In addition to more predictable threats such as enemy fighter jets, surface-to-air missiles and armed drones, Air Force One also needs to be able to survive a nuclear blast, which, as you can probably imagine, isn’t exactly easy or inexpensive. Plus, it needs to be able to refuel in midair so it can stay airborne indefinitely, something a regular Boeing 747 definitely can’t do.

“This is the central point of the US nuclear command and control network to ensure that we have second strike capability … If there were nuclear strikes and you can’t land, or if you land you might be vulnerable because you’ll be seen by satellites, staying up in the air could be the safer option,” Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security told CNN.

Those same defense systems would also be added to the new planes the White House already has on order, so putting them on the Blatant Corruption Plane wouldn’t necessarily be more expensive, but remember, the U.S. doesn’t get to keep the new plane after Trump leaves office. He’s taking it with him, meaning we still have to pay for the other Air Force Ones for future presidents. In the long run, everything spent on this new plane will simply be an extra cost to taxpayers. 

How much money? Well, that reportedly depends, at least partly, on which upgrades Trump would approve, but one source told CNN it would likely cost an estimated $750 million, if not more. By the time it’s all said and done, taxpayers could be on the hook for nearly $1 billion, all because Trump doesn’t want to wait for the new planes we’ve ordered.

Except, even though Boeing is behind schedule, getting the new plane ready will also take time. The retrofits will be overseen by the Air Force, but they’ll also have to coordinate with the Secret Service, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and White House Communications Agency, as well as, presumably, Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.” And unless Trump decides to risk it and skimp on the security upgrades, one source told CNN, giving the new Air Force One the current plane’s capabilities would likely take several years. 

“I don’t see how you do this with an acceptable level of risk in a reasonable amount of time, if you can do it at all,” one former senior counterintelligence official told CNN.