President Trump on Wednesday boarded his first flight aboard the new Air Force One, a Boeing 747-8 that the government of Qatar gave to the United States last year, raising ethical questions.
“This will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built,” Mr. Trump told reporters before climbing the stairs to the plane, which was painted red, white and blue. Its destination: the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota, which will have its official opening on July 4.
Mr. Trump’s decision to accept the luxury jet, worth about $200 million from the Qatari royal family, attracted considerable scrutiny, as critics and lawmakers raised concerns that a foreign government was trying to buy influence over the American president.
The plane is not only among the largest gifts from a foreign government ever made to the United States, but under the terms of the deal, it would be donated to Mr. Trump’s presidential library when he leaves office, according to senior administration officials, potentially making it available for his personal use after 2028.
Since accepting the plane as a gift, the U.S. government has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into refurbishing it to make it secure enough to carry the president. Troy Meink, the Air Force secretary, told Congress last year that the cost of retrofitting would amount to “probably less than $400 million.”
Mr. Trump has been unfazed by critics who argue that the new Air Force One is one of several deals he has cut as president that also yielded personal benefits to himself or his family.
The Qatari plane is an interim solution after a series of delays in delivering two Boeing 747-8 planes that the United States procured in 2018 for use by the president. They are not expected to be finished before the end of Mr. Trump’s second term.
Mr. Trump’s inaugural flight comes just one day after financial disclosure reports showed that the president had pulled in at least $2.2 billion in 2025, the first year of his second term, from his real estate, cryptocurrency and other business ventures. In 2024, before he returned to the Oval Office, he reported $622 million in revenue.
Some of the deals he profited from involved foreign governments with significant interests in U.S. foreign policy. Among the biggest in 2025 involved an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates, which bought nearly half of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency, for $500 million.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump shrugged off allegations that he was profiting off his presidency, telling reporters “I don’t get involved” in his own companies’ investments.
“Personally, I never speak to any of the people who run the money,” he said.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly bragged about new plane from Qatar, telling reporters last month that it was “a flying White House at a level of luxury that nobody’s ever seen before,” after a tour of the finished upgrades.
The plane is also expected to take part in a flyover of the capital on Independence Day.
“We’re very proud of this, the country’s very proud of it,” he told reporters on Wednesday before boarding, adding that he was “excited about the first flight.”
“You can do two things,” he added. “You can low-key it, or you can show it.”