US President Donald Trump flew home from the NATO summit in Turkey aboard an ageing Air Force One rather than the sleek, Qatari-gifted jet he had arrived in days earlier, a surprise last-minute swap that unfolded hours after the United States launched fresh strikes on Iran and reignited scrutiny of the new plane’s security capabilities.
Trump offered little explanation for the switch beyond nostalgia, telling reporters he would be flying home on the legacy aircraft “for old time’s sake.”
Pressed by a reporter on whether the change was tied to renewed threats from Iran, Trump did not directly answer, instead repeating a warning he has made in recent days about his own personal risk.
“I’m No. 1 on the kill list for Iran,” Trump told the crowd at his closing press conference in Ankara, adding, “I don’t really care because I’m doing my job,” before joking that he would rather rank first on TikTok.
The switch came less than a day after the US military carried out large-scale strikes on Iranian targets in retaliation for attacks on merchant shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and notably, Iran shares a border with Turkey, where the summit was held.
A Departure With the Hallmarks of a War Zone
Trump departed Ankara aboard one of the older Boeing VC-25A aircraft that have ferried American presidents for roughly three and a half decades. Consumer flight-tracking services were unable to monitor the jet’s transponder signal after takeoff, an indication that it had been deliberately disabled by the flight crew, a precaution typically reserved for shuttling the president through high-risk environments such as active war zones, rather than a routine visit to a longtime NATO ally hosting a scheduled summit.
Other world leaders departing Ankara that day, including Germany’s and Britain’s delegations, flew out with fully trackable transponders.
The Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-8, by contrast, departed Turkiye earlier Wednesday and landed without incident at Royal Air Force Mildenhall in England, flight trackers showed. Trump said both aircraft would make previously unscheduled stops at the British base so that American service members could tour the new jet, which he had proudly unveiled just days earlier following its first international flight.
Questions Over the New Jet’s Missile Defences
The abrupt swap intensified scrutiny of the Qatari plane’s defensive capabilities, which had already drawn concern following its unusually rapid conversion into a functioning Air Force One. Images captured since the aircraft’s unveiling suggest it lacks some of the missile detection and countermeasure systems built into the older presidential fleet.
The Air Force has said it spent under $400 million retrofitting the jet, though some outside experts have estimated the true cost of bringing it to full Air Force One security standards is closer to $1 billion, a gap that has fed speculation the plane may not yet meet the protective threshold typically required years to achieve.
Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA officer and security analyst, suggested the switch reflected concerns raised internally by security professionals. He wrote that Secret Service and Air Force pleas appeared to have prevailed over what he called “Trump’s vanity project,” adding that the jet was “just not ready for prime time overseas.”
Frank Kendall, who served as Air Force secretary under President Biden, told MS NOW last week it was likely that the customary security hardening process for a new Air Force One, typically spanning years and billions of dollars, had been compressed or scaled back for the Qatari aircraft.
By comparison, the older jets Trump has now returned to flying were built near the end of the Cold War specifically to withstand the effects of a nuclear blast, and come equipped with anti-missile countermeasures, an onboard operating room, and air-to-air refuelling capability for emergencies, a contingency that has never actually been used with a sitting president aboard.
A Gift Meant as a Bridge, Now Under a Cloud
The Qatari-donated aircraft was intended to serve only as a temporary “bridge” plane while Boeing completes two permanent, custom-built successor jets, a program that has fallen years behind schedule and is not expected to deliver finished aircraft until 2028.
Trump has said the Qatari jet will ultimately be donated to his presidential library in Miami once his term ends, though it remains legally unclear whether he has the authority to determine the aircraft’s fate after leaving office.
The gift has drawn sustained conflict-of-interest concerns since it was first offered, with critics in both parties questioning the propriety of a sitting American president accepting a luxury aircraft from a foreign government. Trump has maintained that the jet was given with no strings attached and that Qatar sought nothing in return.
Wednesday’s swap, however, underscored just how quickly those assurances have been overtaken by events: barely a week after its debut flight and its first international outing, the plane billed as the future of presidential travel was rerouted for a base tour in England, while Trump, by his own account, Iran’s top target, chose the tested protection of a Cold War-era jet to bring him home.
