First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
President Trump just fired back at critics of the Qatar 747 gift — "When they give you a 747, you say two words: thank you." Speaking to a packed crowd in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday, Trump defended accepting Qatar's gifted Boeing 747, the jet that will serve as a temporary Air Force One and then move to his presidential library foundation. He argued the plane is a gift to the country itself — not to him personally — and that refusing it would be foolish when it saves the American military hundreds of millions of dollars.
"When they give you a 747, you say two words: thank you."
Trump framed the decision as simple common sense: he is sick of the United States getting ripped off, and when America's largest military base in the Middle East — Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar — comes with a partner willing to hand over the greatest 747 ever built, you take it. He said the jet has been equipped with the security systems the presidency requires and that turning it down would only leave taxpayers paying full price for a replacement. Critics — including some Democrats and ethics watchdogs — have spent months attacking the gift as a bribe and a security risk, and raised the constitutional question of a president accepting something this valuable from a foreign government.
The Associated Press reported the same defence from Bullhead City: Trump put the value of the gift to the American people, arguing the savings belong to the country and the taxpayers, not to him. The Pentagon accepted the jet from Qatar in May 2025, and it has been undergoing the modifications needed to serve as Air Force One. At the rally, the argument landed the way Trump framed it — a free plane for America is not a scandal, and the only correct answer to a gift like that is thank you.
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