The Trump administration would have classified the costs associated with the renovation of the Boeing 747 Qatari transferred to Donald Trump and hidden the budget envelope in another renovation program.
It is a sleight of hand that could have passed under radars. The New York Times reports that the costs associated with the modification of the Boeing 747 Qatari “offered” to Donald Trump to transform him into a presidential plane could come from an expensive modernization of terrestrial ballistic missiles program.
If the American president has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the costs and deadlines for the conversion program for two Boeing 747-8 in presidential planes (estimated at more than $ 4 billion in total), he is more discreet on the modalities of modification of the plane transferred by Qatar.
He had announced in February his wish to acquire an “temporary” plane, a 747-8 VIP from the Qatari government, a “gift” confirmed in May and a source of many controversies because of suspicions of corruption.
Transfers of funds and communicating vases
According to the New York Times, the envelope allocated to this program would reach $ 934 million, resulting from a “mysterious transfer of funds” from the nuclear modernization program to an unnamed classified project. The American media reports that US Air Force officials would have recognized in private that they have drawn from the funds allocated to the Sentinel program, which provides for the modernization of the arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Long -term program, replacing the Minuteman III missiles with sentinels accumulates delays and additional costs. A study of the Foundation for Strategic Research dated 2024 reported that the unit price of missiles was anticipated at $ 162 million, against 118 in 2020. The New York Times indicates that at an initial cost of $ 77.7 billion, the cost of the program would have increased by 81% and would reach 140 billion, or even it could be further revised.
Questioned by the New York Times, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen is concerned about this decision by the Trump administration to “divert funds from the nuclear modernization budget to finance costly renovations from this plane”.
A “gift” more expensive than expected
The Washington Post reports that the Entente protocol to transfer the Qatari government’s Boeing 747-8 to Donald Trump should be finalized in the coming days, the agreement had been officially endorsed in early July. He provides that Qatar makes a “unables” donation “of the plane – which will serve as a presidential plane to Donald Trump and who will be able to dispose of it as he seemed to see at the end of his mandate.
Even if it is received quickly and sent under processing site, the plane will not be ready before 2027 at the earliest, more or less at the same time as the first of the two planes converted by Boeing. Because modifying a line plane by presidential plane – with all that that involves equipment related to the device safety – requires heavy development work (anti -missile and anti -ientomic protection, resistance to jamming, but also medical space, kitchens, etc.).
