US President Donald Trump said Sunday his new Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet needed to be sent off for a month to be “maxed out,” following questions about the plane’s security features.

Trump started flying aboard the jumbo jet on July 1 after accepting the plane as a gift last year, when an accelerated effort to renovate the Boeing 747 for presidential use began.

But Trump unexpectedly ditched the plane on a flight from Turkey to the United Kingdom amid rising hostility with Iran on July 8. He flew aboard an older Air Force One to London in what he described as a move “for old time’s sake,” but later boarded the new plane to return to the US.

He also claimed he had sent the new plane on ahead from the Turkey summit to an airbase in Britain so that service members could see it.

The New York Times reported that the new plane lacked the same security countermeasures as the older model, including anti-missile defenses. The paper’s reporters were then subpoenaed by the Trump administration.

The Times has asked a court to block those orders to appear before a grand jury panel in Manhattan federal court.

“It has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out,” Trump told reporters when........

© The Times of Israel