President Trump boarded a gleaming new Boeing 747-8i Wednesday morning at Joint Base Andrews — the $400 million aircraft donated by the government of Qatar and refurbished as a presidential transport — taking its inaugural flight as Air Force One to Medora, North Dakota, where he dedicated the long-awaited Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library ahead of America's 250th birthday celebrations.
The new aircraft, which features a red, white, navy blue, and gold paint scheme selected by Trump himself along with the presidential seal on the fuselage and an American flag on the tail, arrived at Joint Base Andrews on June 19 and completed its Air Force commissioning flights before Wednesday's debut. Trump spoke to reporters before boarding, calling it perhaps the greatest commercial plane ever built and expressing pride in its debut ahead of the Fourth of July weekend. The plane will also lead a formation flyover on July 4th — what Trump has described as "a flyover like no flyover" — as part of the semiquincentennial celebration. It is intended to serve as a bridge aircraft while two purpose-built Boeing jets contracted for the presidential fleet complete their years-delayed development.
"This will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built. I said to Boeing, what's the best one? He said, 'this is the best plane ever built, and you're going to have the privilege of flying it.'" — President Donald Trump
In Medora, Trump was met with a ceremonial Rough Riders horseback escort before touring the $450 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a 96,000-square-foot facility built over more than a decade at the gateway to the North Dakota Badlands where Roosevelt ranched in the 1880s and found the resilience that would define his presidency. The library opens to the public on July 4th. Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act Reauthorization at the event, renewing approximately $1.9 billion per year in funding for deferred maintenance on national parks, forests, and public lands — including roads, bridges, trails, campgrounds, and visitor centers — in honor of the nation's 250th birthday.
Roosevelt remains one of the most consequential conservation presidents in American history, having established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reservations, five national parks, and 18 national monuments during his time in office. His philosophy that natural resources are assets belonging to future generations as much as present ones is inscribed on the library's walls. Trump's visit frames the anniversary celebration not just around American independence but around the stewardship of the American landscape — a pairing that carries particular resonance in the Badlands that shaped one of the country's most beloved presidents.
The Qatar-gifted Boeing 747-8i has drawn ethical scrutiny from critics who argue that accepting a $400 million aircraft from a foreign government raises constitutional concerns under the Emoluments Clause. Trump has defended the acceptance as a necessary replacement for the aging Boeing 747-200 jets currently serving as Air Force One, which have been in presidential service for more than 35 years. The two purpose-built replacement aircraft ordered under a prior contract remain years behind schedule.
Whatever the ongoing debate about the Qatar plane's provenance, the imagery of Wednesday's trip was exactly what the Trump administration wanted heading into the nation's 250th birthday: a new presidential aircraft, a beloved American president honored in the landscape that made him, and a conservation funding renewal that demonstrates that protecting America's natural heritage is not exclusively the domain of one political party. Teddy Roosevelt would have appreciated the visit — and almost certainly would have had opinions about the airplane.