Did the Pentagon in May of 2025 approve acquisition of a "Qatari-built jet" to be the next Air Force One? No, that's not true: There is no aircraft manufacturing industry in Qatar that could make a jet of that size. The Pentagon on May 21, 2025 announced it had approved President Trump's plan to accept a Boeing 747 as a gift from the government of Qatar to be the President's official mode of air travel. Boeing 747s were built at Everett and Renton, Washington.
The Qatari-built jet claim appeared in a May 21, 2025 post on X.com (archived here) on the @rawsalerts account under the title "🚨#BREAKING". It opened:
The Pentagon has officially approved a Qatari-built jet to serve as the next Air Force One, marking a significant shift in the aircraft's origins and future presidential transport.
Here's what the post looked like on X at the time this fact check was written:
(Source: X.com screenshot by Lead Stories.)
The Pentagon announced May 21, 2025 that it has accepted Qatar's gift of a Boeing 747 built for the Qatari royal family in about 2012 to be used as the next Air Force One. That statement did not describe the next Air Force One as "Qatari-built". Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell's statement about the 747 was emailed to Lead Stories May 21, 2025:
The Secretary of Defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations. 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. For additional information, we refer you to the United States Air Force.
Airliners are mostly manufactured in the United States and in Europe, by Boeing and Airbus, though Brazil, Canada, China, Russia and Japan are among the nations developing airliner industries. The certifying organization for airliner maintenance does not list Qatar as a maker of commercial jets.
The interior of the jet may not have been Qatari-built either. The passenger and workspaces are attributed to French interior design firm Cabinet Alberto Pinto, whose aviation design head, Yves Pickardt, was quoted by the online Executive Traveller (archived here) as saying that no expense was spared in furnishing it in wood and leather, much of which may have to be torn out to make way for the security, staff and press that travel on Air Force One with the President.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-IL, said at a Senate Armed Forces Committee meeting on May 20, 2025 that retrofitting the luxury jet to meet Air Force One standards will cost about $1 billion. In addition to security and medical facilities, Air Force One communication equipment is capable of withstanding the electromagnetic pulse after a nuclear blast, according to the White House website about the plane, so that the airborne president can keep contact with officials on the ground.
At two hours into the recording of that hearing, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink agreed with her that significant modifications would have to be made to a civilian aircraft to reach the "hardened" standards that protect the president and his confidential communications while in the air. He did not accept her estimate and did not offer another, saying only that the gift jet will be made to meet the standards currently in place for Air Force One.
Readers interested in more Lead Stories fact checks about Air Force One will find them here.
