Trump Thinks His New Plane From Qatar Is Too Big

They say you aren’t supposed to look a gift horse in the mouth, but Donald Trump appears to have some notes for the Qatari government the next time it wants to offer him some freebies. During a media session on Wednesday, the president told reporters, “Frankly it’s too big, much too big.”

He did also refer to the plane as “magnificent” and “beautiful, big” (not to be confused with “Big, Beautiful,” the name he’s given his bill that will cut access to social welfare programs like Medicaid and food assistance), but he really could not get over the size. “They tried to say: ‘Oh, it’s Trump’s airplane.’ Oh, yeah, sure. It’s too big,” he said.

To be clear, the plane is quite big. According to The Guardian, the gifted aircraft is a Boeing 747-8, which is a stretch model of the already sizable Boeing 747. It is 18 feet longer than the current model of Air Force One, which is a 747-200B. It’s also significantly larger than Trump’s personal plane, which is a Boeing 757. Trump shouldn’t be totally shocked at the size, though. Back when the process started to procure a new plane to serve as Air Force One, the 747-8 was identified as the model the Air Force wanted for the job. So, size-wise, this has basically always been the plan.

Also, there are some indications that Trump asked for this plane—so, again, odd to call it “too big” when it’s exactly what you wanted. According to reporting from CNN, it was actually the Trump administration that initiated the conversation with Qatar about the exchange, rather than the country simply offering it up as a present to the president. After Boeing informed officials that it wouldn’t be able to deliver a new Air Force One model until 2027, the Pentagon went looking for nations that had similar planes sitting around. Qatar happened to be one of them. And while the original offer from the U.S. was to buy or lease the plane, per CNN, Trump just started calling it a gift.

That itty bitty detail as to whether the $400 million plane is being bought or just handed over with a bow on it is causing a bit of friction now, too. According to the Washington Post, the plane has not yet been transferred to the U.S. because legal teams from both countries are still hammering out the details, in part because Qatar wants to clarify in the paperwork that it was the Trump administration that initiated the transfer and that it will not be held responsible for any future transfers of the plane’s ownership. So, it seems like if the plane does ultimately end up as a “gift,” it won’t come with a receipt.