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ABOARD ONE: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was thrilled to make his first flight aboard his new Air Force One plane, thanking Qatar for the controversial gift of the luxury jet.
Trump said the United States “couldn’t build a plane like this” — despite the fact that the heavily modified Boeing 747-8 aircraft was originally made there. “To be honest with you, I’m excited about the first flight. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it,” Trump told journalists traveling with him, including a photographer, ahead of a trip to North Dakota.
The 80-year-old president is due to attend an event at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library as part of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of American independence.
“They just completed it. They made it appropriate for a president, that means the security and all of the different bells and whistles they put on. Very complex stuff, but it’s really quite something,” Trump said at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.
