Donald Trump walked down the stairs of his new plane at Joint Base Andrews on Friday to “God Bless the USA” and immediately told the assembled crowd that only a fool would have turned it down, a position he has held consistently since Qatar offered the aircraft last year and one he repeated with considerable enthusiasm on the tarmac.
The plane is a Boeing 747-8i that previously served the Qatari royal family as a VVIP transport, which means the president of the United States is now flying in a jet decorated to the specifications of a Gulf monarchy. The exterior has been repainted in deep navy blue, red and white, replacing the robin’s egg blue scheme that defined Air Force One since the Kennedy administration, and Trump confirmed the new color scheme was entirely his decision. “It was time for a change. Everything was designed good. It was my taste,” he said.
No photographs were permitted inside during the tour, which made the reporters who had walked through the cabin the most consequential people in the hangar for roughly twenty minutes.
The Daily Caller’s Regan Reese filed her account on X shortly after: “I just toured the new Air Force One. No photos allowed, so you’ll have to take my word for it. It’s big and beautiful. Like, ‘this feels more like a house than a plane’ big. Warm tan walls. Glossy. Silver accents throughout. Solid wood tables. Presidential seal on every seat belt. Couches in the lounge. Photos of the National Mall in the conference room. The press area is 2-3x the size of the old plane’s. The seats recline all the way flat into a bed. And yes. It has that new plane smell.”
I just toured the new Air Force One. No photos allowed, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
It’s big and beautiful. Like, “this feels more like a house than a plane” big.
Warm tan walls. Glossy. Silver accents throughout. Solid wood tables. Presidential seal on every seat…
— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) June 19, 2026
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The interior is largely Qatar’s original luxury configuration, retained to accelerate delivery and avoid the billions of dollars and years required to build a custom cabin from the ground up, while defense contractor L3Harris Technologies handled the military overhaul: anti-missile defense systems, encrypted satellite communications, severe weather hardening and secure global command capabilities.
A new hangar had to be specially constructed at Joint Base Andrews to accommodate the aircraft, which spans 250 feet in length and stands as tall as a six-story building.
THE NEW AIR FORCE ONE UNLOCKED. 🇺🇸✈️ pic.twitter.com/5BVOH84Y9h
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 20, 2026
Trump offered no shortage of superlatives during his remarks, describing it as “the world’s most luxurious plane” and “the largest Air Force One ever built,” adding that it “flies further and faster than any Air Force One.” He thanked the Emir of Qatar by name before announcing: “This plane was transformed into a flying White House at a level of luxury that nobody’s ever seen before, probably even almost outside of an airplane.”
His philosophical summary of the whole arrangement was delivered with characteristic modesty: “See, a normal president wouldn’t do this. A normal president wants to stay away from aircraft. But our country has to be represented properly.”
The constitutional argument has not resolved itself simply because the plane arrived on schedule. Senator Patty Murray called the deal “hard to imagine more brazen corruption or a clearer violation of our Constitution’s Emoluments Clause,” warning that it “puts our country’s national security at risk.”
Featured image via X screengrab
