Fox News host Laura Ingraham has hit President Donald Trump with an embarrassing reality check about his new Air Force One plane.
On his way home from the NATO Summit in Turkey earlier this week, the president was forced to swap out his new Air Force One, a gift from the Qatari government, due to security concerns about the aircraft’s capabilities. He returned to the U.S. in the older, tailor-made aircraft.
Concerns quickly mounted about the use of the new jet, a Boeing 747-8. According to two former national security officials familiar with the matter, the gifted Air Force One lacks the secure communications systems and military defenses needed to safely manage conflict, a particular concern as the fragile ceasefire deal with Iran rapidly degraded this week.
Ingraham leaped on this assessment, sharing on X on Thursday, “A retrofitted Air Force One will NEVER match the real thing.”
She also shared a clip from her interview with retired Brig. Gen. John Teichert, who was candid in his response to the saga. “No matter what you do to retrofit a Qatari jet, it’s never gonna be built from scratch to have the defensive capabilities like a tailor-made Air Force One,” he told Ingraham.
“And so it’s clear to me that the Secret Service gave some pretty good advice to the president that there is a real, specific, and credible threat, and he needs to have as robust and defended capability as possible, especially leaving Turkey yesterday.”
Speaking about what the Qatar jet might actually lack, he explained, “You need sensors built into the plane. You need active defenses. You need hardening. All of that really can come from a tailor-made, built-from-scratch plane. We’re building two new Air Force Ones. They will have those systems, but a bolt-on system to a new Qatar jet is not gonna cut it.”
Trump used the new Air Force One to fly to Turkey earlier this week, but on Wednesday, he brazenly announced that the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran had broken, and a peace deal was off the cards.
“I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore, they’re scum... they’re led by sick people, and they’re vicious, violent people,” he told reporters at the NATO summit.
“We make a deal... They [Iran] go outside, talk to the press, they say ‘we never even talked about it’. There’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”
Concern immediately grew regarding his return to the U.S., given Turkey’s proximity to Iran. A report in the New York Times surmized that his new jet lacked “the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities,” according to multiple officials who have been briefed on how the jet was retrofitted.
“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff,” Steven Cheung, the communications director, said in a statement about the Qatari jet.
