US formally accepts luxury jet from Qatar for Trump
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'Any civilian aircraft will take significant modifications to do so,' Troy Meink, the Air Force secretary, said Tuesday during Senate testimony. 'We're off looking at that right now, what it's going to take for that particular aircraft.'
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The plan has drawn concern from members of Congress, who worry that Trump will pressure the Air Force to do the work so fast that sufficient security measures are not built into the plane, such as missile defense systems or even systems to protect the plane from the electromagnetic effects of a nuclear blast.
'If President Trump insists on converting this plane to a hardened Air Force One before 2029, I worry about the pressures you may be under to cut corners on operational security,' Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said as Meink was testifying.
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The gift also has drawn questions from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who worry that Qatar may be trying to improperly influence Trump or that the plane itself might have listening devices.
Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Monday publicly said for the first time that his government had approved turning over the plane as a gift, rejecting the idea of it being an attempt to influence the president.
'We are a country that would like to have strong partnership and strong friendship, and anything that we provide to any country, it's provided out of respect for this partnership, and it's a two-way relationship,' he said. 'It's mutually beneficial for Qatar and for the United States.'
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