CNN
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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar that President Donald Trump will use once the Pentagon upgrades it to include “proper security measures and functional-mission requirements,” according to a Defense Department spokesperson.
“The secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Wednesday. “The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the president of the United States.”
A person familiar with the discussions, however, countered that the deal has not yet been finalized and that the talks between the legal teams are ongoing.
Parnell did not address whether the administration had paid for the jet and referred any additional questions about the transfer to the US Air Force. CNN has reached out to the Embassy of Qatar in Washington for comment.
Asked on Wednesday about reports that the Pentagon had accepted the jet, Trump told reporters that Qatar is “giving the United States Air Force a jet, okay, and it’s a great thing.”
Qatar’s prime minister told Bloomberg on Monday that “this plane story is a Ministry of Defense to the Department of Defense transaction that is done in full transparency and very legally, and it is part of the cooperation that we have always been doing together for decades.”
On Tuesday, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink and Air Force Chief of Staff David Allvin told lawmakers that Hegseth had directed the Air Force to start planning to modify the plane.
“The Secretary of Defense has directed the Air Force to basically start planning to modify the aircraft,” Meink said. “We are postured to do that.”
An Air Force spokesperson told CNN that “as directed by the Secretary of Defense, the Air Force is preparing to award a contract to modify a Boeing 747 aircraft for executive airlift. Details related to the contract are classified.”
The active discussions about transferring the jet from Qatar to the Trump administration, which were first disclosed publicly earlier this month, have sparked a political furor as Democrats and several influential Republicans, who are normally staunch supporters of the president, said they opposed the potential deal on ethics grounds.
Trump has repeatedly touted the plane as a possible replacement for Air Force One, and on his social media site Truth Social he described it as a “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE,” from Qatar.
But CNN reported on Monday that it was the Trump administration that first approached Qatar to inquire about acquiring the Boeing 747.
After Trump took office in January, the Air Force contacted Boeing and was told the company would not be able to deliver the new jets it was building to replace the aging presidential planes for another two years.
The Trump administration, however, wanted a replacement plane much faster, and the Air Force was exploring different options for doing so. At the same time, Trump tasked his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff with finding a list of viable planes, a senior White House official told CNN.
After the Air Force’s engagement with the company, Boeing provided US defense officials with a list of its other clients around the world with planes that could work in the meantime, and Qatar was one of them, CNN reported.
The Pentagon launched the discussions with Qatar after learning that the White House supported the idea, and Witkoff helped facilitate the initial conversations, the White House official said. But the Air Force was initially under the impression that any transaction with the Qataris would involve a sale of the plane — not a donation, defense officials said.
Beyond the ethical and legal questions, retrofitting and installing the required security and communications equipment on a second-hand plane from another government, even a friendly one, is a monumental task.
It could take two years and cost multiples of what the plane itself is worth, current and former officials have told CNN. US spy and security agencies tasked with the overhaul would need to essentially strip the aircraft down to its frame and rebuild it with the necessary equipment.
CNN’s Alex Marquardt contributed to this report.
