The president of the United States of America should fly around in a plane that was built in the U.S., has always been in the possession of the U.S. government and is 100 percent safe for the president and his staff to use — even in a dangerous situation such as a shooting war with Iran.

You might think the above statement is not an unrealistic or exceedingly high bar for the Trump administration to clear. Alas, that is not the case.

At the beginning of July, President Donald Trump started using his new Qatari-donated version of Air Force One, a retrofitted Boeing 747-800 worth $400 million. Ever since the president announced the gift — no strings attached, surely! — many Americans have thought it was a bad idea, on all kinds of levels. In May 2025, a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found that 62 percent of registered voters said accepting the plane “raises ethical concerns about corruption.”

It was even more cringe-inducing when, before boarding the plane, Trump implied that the Qataris build better planes than Americans. “Frankly, we couldn’t build a plane like this because we wouldn’t be willing to spend the kind of money necessary. They spent top dollar,” the president said. Ah yes, that infamously tightfisted U.S.........

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