The Qataris Gave Trump an Airplane. He Crippled Their Country in Return.

D onald Trump really wanted the plane.

The Qataris had flown the $400 million Boeing 747 to West Palm Beach just after he returned to the White House so he could run his hands over the soft leather chairs and inspect the sycamore- and wacapou-wood veneers.

A sales brochure had described the en-suite master bathroom, with its mother-of-pearl inlays, as “almost a piece of art.” The plane was a flying palace fit for a Persian Gulf monarch, or an American president who would like to live like one.

But its operating costs—about $25,000 per flight hour—were steep even for the Qatari royal family.

The government had been trying to sell it for five years.

The Qataris knew Trump would want the plane.

They understood the man, and his taste.

It sat in the same aesthetic register as the comparatively puny “Trump Force One,” the gold-heavy Boeing 757 that he had flown as a private citizen.

They also knew that Trump didn’t like the aging, baby-blue 747s that had been carrying presidents since 1990.

He’d ordered two new planes from Boeing in 2018, but they were years behind schedule.

Trump wanted the 11-bathroom Qatari plane, repainted in a red-white-and-blue color scheme.

And he wanted it in time for a flyover on America’s 250th birthday.

This was an absurd demand.

Air Force One is meant to serve as an airborne military command post.