A few hundred people dressed in red, white, and blue took a break from fanning themselves in the 80-degree North Dakota sun to give President Donald Trump a standing ovation as he stepped onto an outdoor stage near the brand new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
The president had just visited the library, and he was there to talk about his predecessor’s legacy. But it took less than two minutes for his new plane to come up.
This was the “inaugural flight of a certain airplane called Air Force One,” he told the crowd. “We had a lot of fun coming over.”
Why We Wrote This
Qatar’s donation of an airplane that would become the new Air Force One raised concerns about conflict of interest that the Trump administration has dismissed. Those questions persist, but the president touted the new jet as he flew on it for the first time.
On Wednesday, as a member of the small press corps traveling with President Trump, I took part in the maiden voyage of the $400 million luxury jet Qatar’s government donated last year for his use.
While the Qatari government framed it as a gift with no strings attached, lawmakers in both parties raised concerns that it could leave the U.S. government feeling indebted to Qatar.
The administration denies any such conflict, saying the plane is a bridge between an aging Boeing fleet and replacements that are running behind schedule, and that Mr. Trump is thrilled with the plane. Standing on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland just before boarding Wednesday morning, he told the reporters that it was the “best plane ever built.”
“Nobody’s ever seen anything like it,” he said, adding, “This was a gift from a country that treated us really well.”
The plane can fly faster than previous presidential aircraft, and it made the flight from Maryland to North Dakota in less than three hours. The administration billed the trip as a celebration, emphasizing the country’s 250th birthday, the value of the heartlands, and the legacy of Roosevelt, who was president from 1901 to 1909.
Mr. Trump stepped off a star-spangled Freedom250 Train – an Amtrak train specially branded for the nation’s big birthday – to chants of “USA” in Medora, North Dakota, a spot which the White House noted was where Roosevelt got off the train in 1884 as a 24-year-old New Yorker.
A group of “Rough Riders” on horseback – reenactors dressed like the cavalry soldiers led by Roosevelt in 1898 during the Spanish-American War – escorted Mr. Trump’s motorcade to the new library, where he took a private tour. The museum opens to the public July 4.
“He’s a proud man,” the president said of Roosevelt later on the outdoor stage, surrounded by the hilly North Dakota badlands. “But I’m a proud man. I’m proud of our country.”
Later, the president cheerfully gave the small group of traveling journalists a tour of the new plane before we took off from Bismarck. The tour was off the record, meaning I can’t report what we saw or what was said.
But I took in some of the other details from the press section near the back. I had never flown on the older Air Force One fleet, but a fellow reporter described the press seats on those planes as “1960s first-class seats.”
Our cream and tan leather seats on Wednesday were first-class in the most current sense of the word. They were spaced out, could recline fully, and came with a massage function. Large monitors on each seat allowed passengers to view exterior camera angles from different parts of the plane, or watch a channel of the White House’s choosing. (On our departing trip, it was Fox News; on the way back, reporters cheered as they watched World Cup games.) The only thing we lacked was Wi-Fi, which traveling press typically does not have in the air for security reasons.
The luxury, some say, comes with costs. A Democratic senator called the plane “Bribe Force One” when it was donated. The government used taxpayer money to modify the plane before it could be used by the president.
Mr. Trump will use the plane as Air Force One – the customized aircraft that all presidents use for official travel – until the end of his term. He has said the plane will then be donated to his presidential library foundation.
Editor’s note: News outlets pay to travel with the president. Taxpayer dollars do not fund reporters on these trips.