US President Donald Trump said Friday he would take the new Air Force One on its first foreign trip since a security scare in Turkey, leaving a security upgrade to the Qatari-gifted jet for next month.
The plane has been at the center of controversy since it emerged that Trump not only switched to an older model to leave a NATO summit in Ankara in July because of a reported threat from Iran, but then secretly swapped to a third aircraft.
Speaking to journalists in the Oval Office, Trump confirmed that he would be taking the jet donated by Qatar’s royal family on a trip to Ireland next week despite the security concerns.
Asked if the jet would still be getting extra security measures as he had announced in July, Trump said: “It’s gonna be maxed out. Yeah, it’s going to go away, and it’s a magnificent plane.”
“It has a lot of stuff, but to max it out — meaning you can go into any territory — it’ll take about 60 days, and it’s being sent in October to be maxed out,” Trump told reporters.
