President Donald Trump claims he’s getting a “free, very expensive airplane” from Qatar – but the so-called gift could end up costing American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, experts and lawmakers told Politico.
“This isn’t really a gift,” Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) told Politico on Monday. “You’d basically have to tear the plane down to the studs and rebuild it to meet all the survivability, security and communications requirements of Air Force One. It’s a massive undertaking — and an unfunded one at that.”
The revelation came hours after reports surfaced that the Qatari government is in discussions with the Trump White House about transferring a luxury-configured jumbo jet once owned by Qatar’s royal family to the Pentagon. The aircraft could serve as a temporary Air Force One with replacement planes behind schedule and the current fleet continuing to age.
But turning the jet into a presidential aircraft would require an extensive retrofit – one that comes with a hefty price tag, Politico reported.
“This gift could become a very expensive asset to own and operate,” former Air Force acquisitions chief Andrew Hunter told the publication.
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Hunter added that the estimated retrofitting alone could soar into the “the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.” That’s not including the “significant cost” of sweeping the plane for foreign software or tech, which he said is “not a trivial thing to do.”
“That alone would cost tens of millions of dollars,” Hunter told Politico. And former Air Force officials and lawmakers say that taxpayers would be on the hook for the “expensive and complicated prospect.”
While Democrats like Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) have raised ethical concerns over Trump accepting the plane – he called the deal “a corrupt bargain” – the president has dismissed the criticism. He called Democrats “world class losers” and described the plane as a “great gesture from Qatar.”
“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” he told reporters Monday. “I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’”