As catnip for a high-end mendicant like Donald Trump, the Boeing 747-8 is unbeatable. It’s an exquisite machine, a perfect consummation of form and function and last in a line of one of the greatest airplanes ever built. It’s also a haunting specter for Boeing of a supremacy it achieved and then lost.

In May 2025, the nation of Qatar gave the Department of Defense a Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to be remodeled into a new Air Force One.

President Donald Trump's trip to Qatar was overshadowed by his plan to accept a $400 million 747 jet as a gift from the country.

The Qatar-Boeing deal is the latest in a series of high-profile aviation agreements signed during Trump’s four-day Middle East visit. Just a day earlier, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund inked a $4.8 billion agreement with Boeing, and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced a $10 billion order from a British airline.

For a leader who campaigned on a promise of “America First” with deep isolationist strains, the first major overseas trip of President Donald Trump’s second term signaled he may be emerging as more of a globalist.

Aboard Air Force One, Trump lamented to Fox News host Sean Hannity of the U.S. government plane's comparative old age of 40 years and lackluster appearance next to Qatar's, Saudi Arabia's and the United Arab Emirates' "brand new Boeing 747s."

U.S. President Donald Trump has left Qatar for the United Arab Emirates on the final leg of his Middle East tour.

The White House announced that President Donald Trump secured economic exchanges with Qatar worth $1.2 trillion, a figure which includes a historic order for Boeing airliners.