A group of six Democratic lawmakers is demanding more details from the Air Force as to how the service is siphoning funding from a nuclear missile modernization program to pay for retrofits for a luxury jet, gifted to the Trump administration by Qatar, to make it usable as Air Force One.
In a letter sent Wednesday to Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, the lawmakers voice their concerns about how the Air Force is managing funds for the Sentinel nuclear missile program, “including whether those funds are being raided to retrofit a personal gift to President Trump that likely violates the emoluments clause of the Constitution.”
The letter was signed by Sens. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
The United States and Qatar are on track to soon finalize a deal for a 747 Boeing luxury jet that will be used as Air Force One, after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his Qatari counterpart last month signed an agreement outlining the terms of Qatar’s “unconditional donation.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said that the 13-year-old luxury jet, previously used by the Qatari royal family, raises ethical and corruption questions in addition to costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to retrofit the plane into a secure and working Air Force One.
President Trump, who first announced the controversial gift in May ahead of his visit to the Middle East, has repeatedly insisted the plane is a “gift” and “free of charge.”
But American taxpayers will foot the bill for the Air Force to strip the jet nearly to the studs to install the required security and communications equipment to function as Air Force One — a task that Meink in June optimistically estimated to cost “less than $400 million.” Aviation experts and engineers, however, have placed the figure at as much as $1 billion or more.
The Democratic lawmakers worry that in providing Trump with a “palace in the sky,” Qatar is trying to curry favor with the administration.
Furthermore, as the plane needs significant modifications to meet Air Force One standards, including required security and communications equipment, the Air Force has plans to pull hundreds of millions of dollars from the Sentinel program — an overbudget and overscheduled upgrade to America’s nuclear-equipped missiles — to an unspecified classified project believed to be the Air Force One upgrade.
The total price tag of the upgrade is classified, further frustrating lawmakers.
“It appears that funds for programs that the Air Force has continually claimed are among its top national security priorities are now being used as accounts for presidential whims, while the egregious lack of transparency hides the true costs of these programs from taxpayers,” they write.
The lawmakers ask Meink for answers to a range of questions by Aug. 20, including whether the Air Force has assessed if shifting funds out of the Sentinel program will increase the program’s costs or risk further delaying its schedule, whether any of the $934 million pulled from the Sentinel program has or will go to retrofits for the Qatari plane, and how much the retrofit is now estimated to cost, among other queries.
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