“President Donald Trump insists he’s getting a ‘free, very expensive airplane’ from Qatar’s royal family. But it’s not much of a gift for the American taxpayer,” Politico reports.
“The Qatari Defense Ministry is talking to the White House about transferring the luxury-configured Boeing jet to the Pentagon, which would oversee its retrofitting into a makeshift Air Force One.
But a private contractor would have to rip it apart to turn the jet into a flying White House for the president with secure communications and classified upgrades, according to former Air Force officials and lawmakers, an expensive and complicated prospect that could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.”