U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while standing in front of a VC-25B aircraft used as Air Force One, a gift from Qatar, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, June 19, 2026.
Elizabeth Franz | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Friday unveiled the new Air Force One, a jumbo jet owned by Qatar that has been converted into the US president’s personal aircraft.
The new aircraft eschews the Kennedy-era robin egg blue look of the old planes for a bolder look, with the underbelly of the plane painted navy blue with a red stripe above it. The president’s emblem is on the left side of the plane, and a huge American flag flies at the rear of the plane.
“This plane has been transformed into a flying White House at a level of luxury that no one has ever seen before,” President Trump said inside a huge hangar at Andrews Air Force Base, as hundreds of Air Force personnel gathered to watch. He said this after stepping off his new plane in dramatic fashion as his signature song “God Bless the USA” played.
He confirmed he would fly a new jet to the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, next month and hinted he would return to China “at some point,” perhaps with an eye to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that China will host in November. He said returning from the G7 summit in France this week would be his last scheduled trip aboard the older Air Force One.
“Right now, when you’re landing at an airport in London or Germany or anywhere else, there’s nothing better than this. That’s the way it should be for our country,” Trump said, noting that the colors and design were “just to my taste.”
He added that a new Air Force One will be flying overhead during next month’s Fourth of July celebrations.
The gift from Qatar is acting as a so-called “bridge” aircraft to carry the president until a new aircraft is ordered directly from Qatar. boeing arrival. Currently scheduled for 2028.
Last year, the administration formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar as the presidential plane, despite questions about the ethics and legality of accepting such an expensive gift from a foreign government. President Trump has previously insisted that he would not fly around in Qatar after leaving office, saying instead that he would donate it to a future presidential library.
President Trump said Friday that the United States is “in a bit of a limbo” as it waits for direct delivery of new jets from Boeing Co., originally scheduled for 2024. He recalled asking the emir of Qatar for use of the plane.
“A normal president would not do this. A normal president would want to stay away from airplanes,” Trump said Friday. “But our country must be properly represented.”
U.S. President Donald Trump applauds as he inspects a VC-25B aircraft used as Air Force One, a gift from Qatar, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, June 19, 2026.
Elizabeth Franz | Reuters
The Air Force said in a news release Friday that any aircraft to be considered Air Force One “must meet rigorous safety requirements” and that the Qatari aircraft was “modified under a disciplined engineering approach that prioritizes these precise core capabilities above all else.” The Air Force also said that “much of the aircraft’s previous Head of State interior layout” was retained.
The Air Force has previously said safety upgrades to the plane would cost less than $400 million.
President Trump’s efforts to rethink the presidential plane date back to his first administration. At the time, President Trump ordered that future new jets adopt a color scheme similar to that of the presidential jet. Then-President Joe Biden reversed the decision in March 2023 after an Air Force study showed that a darker color would increase costs and potentially delay deliveries of the new jet, but when Trump returned to office, he reverted to his preferred color for the jet.
The Air Force announced earlier this year that other government planes carrying other government officials would use a similar red, white and navy color scheme.
An Air Force spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive plans, told The Associated Press that the two current aircraft, known as VC-25As, will not be retired. Instead, the planes will be retained until a new Boeing aircraft called the VC-25B enters service, the spokesperson said.
It is unclear how the older jets will be used, but a spokesperson said both Qatari jets and VC-25As are available and that “Presidential Airlift Group will select the appropriate aircraft for each mission based on operational requirements.”
