Trump secretly switched planes on July Turkey trip amid doubts about defenses
Donald Trump plans to fly the Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar to Ireland next week, marking the aircraft’s first trip outside the United States since questions surfaced about whether it can defend the president from attack. A senior administration official confirmed the travel plans to the Washington Post, according to a Guardian report published Friday.
The Ireland trip comes weeks after Trump said the Qatar-donated jet would be grounded for about a month for unspecified security upgrades. Pressed for details, a senior administration official told the Guardian: “We don’t comment on specific upgrades or modifications to Air Force One. We maintain a consistent posture that ensures a safe, secure, and reliable capability for the President of the United States and routinely evolve the capability as required to maintain that posture.” The same official called the aircraft “the greatest presidential plane ever built.”
What security upgrades the Qatar-donated aircraft has received since being grounded, the Guardian reported, “remains a mystery even now.”
Doubts about the aircraft’s defensive capabilities resurfaced publicly during Trump’s previous trip abroad on it, a NATO summit in Turkey in July. According to the Guardian, Trump was moved via a catering truck to a separate, older aircraft after officials learned of a possible Iranian threat in Ankara. The Qatar-donated jet continued as a decoy, carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, several senior aides and the traveling press pool.
The press pool members were not informed of the threat and were asked to keep their window shades closed, the Guardian reported. The episode drew what the Guardian described as “widespread accusations and furor that Trump had been willing to treat his own officials and journalists as expendable for his own safety.” It has since been dramatized in a new Netflix mini-documentary.
The Qatar-donated Boeing 747 was converted for presidential use earlier in Trump’s term after two custom-built Boeing aircraft intended to eventually serve as Air Force One were delayed for years. Those replacement planes, still not ready, are designed from the ground up with elaborate missile-defense systems — features the $400 million “palace in the sky” has never been confirmed to match.
The Ireland trip will mark the first international deployment of the Qatar-donated aircraft since the questions about its defensive capabilities resurfaced.