Washington — President Trump is traveling Wednesday to North Dakota in what marks his first trip aboard the new Air Force One, a Boeing 747-8 luxury plane gifted to the U.S. by the Qatari government last year.
The president unveiled the $400 million plane earlier this month, which is replacing the military-grade 747-2 that has served presidents for more than 30 years. The Qatari-gifted plane is expected to be used until a new fleet of Boeing planes are delivered to the Air Force in 2028.
On the trip to North Dakota, Mr. Trump is set to participate in a train ride and welcome ceremony to mark America's 250th anniversary, followed by a visit to the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library.
Speaking at Joint Base Andrews ahead of the trip, the president marked the moment, saying, "This will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built."
President Trump speaks to the press before boarding Air Force One for his first flight aboard the Boeing 747-8 that Qatar gifted the United States to use for executive travel, at Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, July 1, 2026.
SAUL LOEB /AFP via Getty Images
"I'm excited about the first flight. Nobody's ever seen anything like it," Mr. Trump said. "They just completed it, they made it appropriate for a president — that means the security and all the different bells and whistles they put on — very complex stuff. But it's really quite something."
The president claimed it cost taxpayers "very little" to upgrade the plane "relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way." He called it "a gift from a country that's treated us very well."
The Air Force said it prioritized operational readiness over aesthetics in its upgrades, leaving the plane's "interior layout minimally changed." White House Communications Director Steven Cheung shared photos on X from the plane's interior, which appeared to show large conference tables, leather seats and some glossy wood paneling. The plane also includes a spacious press cabin, according to a pool reporter onboard, with lie-flat seats that feature a massage function and individual TV screens.
Mr. Trump noted that the old plane was more than 30 years old, and said, "It would be parked next to the new ones like this and it really didn't look appropriate for our country."
"So we're really proud of this," he said. "The country's very proud of it."
Eleanor Watson, Arden Farhi and Emma Nicholson contributed to this report.
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