President Trump has ordered himself a ritzy private plane after giving up hope that Boeing could hand over a revamped Air Force One.
The commander in chief is getting an L3Harris jet decked out with suites, plush carpeting, leather couches and more that was once owned by the Qatari government, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The interior of the opulent plane was done by famed French interior design firm Alberto Pinto Cabinet — and boasts gold-colored walls and gold furnishings, reminiscent of Trump’s opulent home in Trump Tower.
L3Harris is working to transform the lavish plane into one with unspecified systems fit for a presidential jet.
The plane — which once listed for $400 million — will serve as an interim jet while Trump waits on Boeing to complete work on the existing, but aging, presidential fleet.
Trump wants to have the plane in his possession by early fall and has been regularly checking in with the company for updates, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
Trump reportedly turned toward the Florida-based contractor after Boeing told the administration it wouldn’t be able to replace the president’s Air Force One fleet until after he left the presidency.
Boeing has been working on the pair of aging planes since 2017, when Trump, in his first term, had awarded the scrutinized company a $3.9 billion contract to replace the planes, which are known by the military as VC-25A aircraft and as Air Force One when the president is on board.
The fleet has been around since the George H.W. Bush administration and requires heavy maintenance, but Boeing has reportedly fallen too far behind on the $3.9 billion project that it now projects a completion date of 2035.
The project was initially expected to be completed last year, but has been bogged down by a series of supplier, engineering and manufacturing setbacks — and is now running billions of dollars over budget.
Trump’s administration even considered terminating the contract before he took office in January, with Elon Musk reportedly pressing Boeing officials before detailed information — which “made some executives at Boeing uncomfortable,” sources told the Wall Street Journal.
In February, Trump toured the Qatari-owned 747 in West Palm Beach and teased that he might buy it and turn it into the plane he had not-so-patiently been waiting for.
“I’m not happy with Boeing,” he reportedly said.
Requests for comment to the White House and Boeing were not immediately returned. L3Harris declined to comment.
