US President Donald Trump has said he is thrilled to make his first flight aboard his new Air Force One plane, thanking Qatar for the gift of the luxury jet.
Trump said the United States “couldn’t build a plane like this.”
“To be honest with you, I’m excited about the first flight. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it,” Trump told journalists on Wednesday travelling with him, including an AFP photographer, ahead of a trip to North Dakota.
The 80-year-old president is due to attend an event at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library as part of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of American independence.
“They just completed it. They made it appropriate for a president, that means the security and all of the different bells and whistles they put on. Very complex stuff, but it’s really quite something,” Trump said at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.
Gone is the trademark light blue hull that helped Air Force One blend into the sky.
The refurbished jet is painted to Trump’s preferred colour scheme of a navy belly and red and gold stripes.
It has the luxury features that the president believes a commander-in-chief’s entourage should have — plush carpets, lie-flat seats, wood panelling and a presidential seal on the seat belts, according to reported tours of the plane.
Trump told reporters that he was proud of the luxurious plane. “You can do two things: You can low-key it, or you can show it,“ he said.
