U.S., Qatar days away from final agreement on Air Force One gift

The U.S. government and Qatar are expected to finalize an agreement next week involving a jet for use as Air Force One, months after the Pentagon first said that such a deal was complete, multiple people familiar with the matter said.

According to official communication reviewed by the Washington Post, Qatar will send the Boeing 747-8 aircraft as an unconditional “donation” to the Department of Defense, which will then be responsible for its maintenance.

The agreement, dated July 7, is signed by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defense Affairs Soud bin Abulrahaman Al-Thani.

Still, a person familiar with the process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said the deal is still awaiting final approval after the Defense Department requested small updates to the text.

Spokespeople for the White House and Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Finishing the agreement will allow the U.S. Air Force to begin renovating the plane for use as Air Force One, a process that may cost hundreds of millions of dollars and could take years.

The donation has been a political maelstrom since the Trump administration announced it this spring. Democrats – and even some Republican commentators – have derided the gift as impractical and potentially illegal if used by the president after leaving office.

The document, officially a memorandum of understanding, references those concerns, stating: “Nothing in this MoU is, or shall be interpreted or construed as, an offer, promise or acceptance of any form of bribery, undue influence, or corrupt practice.”

It also does not restrict how the plane may be used in the future, except to say that it must comply with U.S. law. The Qatari government had wanted the document to specify that the plane would remain in the custody of the U.S. Air Force, but the language was removed during negotiations after the American side objected, the source said.

Hegseth was evasive during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in June when pressed by Democrats on how the jet could be used once accepted by the U.S. government. Democratic lawmakers are especially incensed by plans that the plane is expected eventually to be transferred to Trump’s presidential library, something Hegseth confirmed.

Questioned by Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) on how long it may take to renovate the jet, Hegseth said such information was “not for public consumption.”

Hegseth also said he could not say how much the refurbishment would cost, angering the normally restrained Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Why can’t it be revealed in this setting?” Reed asked. “This is the Appropriations Committee of the United States Senate. We appropriate the money that you will spend after it’s authorized by my committee.”

Hegseth said there were several reasons for spending the money on the project “to ensure the safety and security of the president of the United States.” Those reasons, he said, should remain classified.

Congressional Democrats have also decried the gift as a leech on other military priorities, given how expensive it will be to renovate the plane in line with the strict rules for use as Air Force One – a high-tech flying command center for the leader of the free world.

To start doing so, the Pentagon plans to pull funding from the Sentinel program, an upgrade to America’s nuclear-equipped missiles that lags chronically behind schedule.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink testified before lawmakers in June that the plane renovation would cost less than $400 million and take under a year – both estimates that Democratic lawmakers have disputed.

The Pentagon then plans to fill in the funding gaps created by moving money around through a massive party-line spending package that passed in early July and contains $150 billion for the Defense Department, two other sources said.

“From the outset, the Qatari side has maintained that this entire process must comply with the laws of both countries, emphasizing that no party should interfere with the other legal system. The Qataris were also firm in their insistence that the transaction be conducted on a government-to-government basis, with their Ministry of Defense working directly with the Department of Defense,” another person familiar with the process said, noting that political officials were meant to play a minor role in the negotiations.

“The final version has not been signed yet,” the person said.

In May, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson said that the “secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” suggesting that the agreement was final.

“Immediately, the American side responded positively” to Qatar’s requests in the MOU, said the person familiar with the deal.

Instead, the deal has been caught in legal wrangling for the last two months. Only now is it nearly complete, multiple sources said.

The Trump administration first discussed the plane with Qatar in December, responding to the president’s frustration with delays in acquiring two Boeing jets purchased for $3.9 billion in his first term, officials previously told The Post. The conversation later became about Qatar providing the jet as a gift, which CNN and the New York Times previously reported.

“We have an Air Force One that’s 40 years old. And if you take a look at that compared to the new plane of the equivalent stature of the time, it’s not even the same ballgame,” Trump told reporters in May.

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Dan Lamothe and John Hudson contributed to this report.