Secret Service reportedly urged Trump to avoid Qatari-donated jet at takeoff

The Secret Service asked that Donald Trump not use the Qatari-donated presidential jet when he left Ankara, forcing him onto the older baby blue VC-25A Air Force One.

Trump left Turkey on July 8 aboard the legacy plane, then later boarded the newly retrofitted red, white and navy blue jet in Britain for the flight to Washington. The switch came as the United States and Iran were trading strikes, and images of the converted plane show it lacks some of the missile detection and countermeasure equipment found on the older VC-25A aircraft. The White House did not immediately say whether security concerns played any role in the change.

Trump said he used the older plane “for old time’s sake.” He also said the new jet would stop at Royal Air Force Mildenhall so U.S. service members could tour it.

The Trump administration formally accepted the Qatari 747 in 2025 as an “unconditional donation,” after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Qatar’s Minister of State for Defense Affairs, Soud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, signed a memorandum of understanding. The Air Force then began the retrofit needed for presidential use, a process whose cost remains classified. Lawmakers said the work could reach as much as $1 billion, and Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the money would come from the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program.

Trump first showed off the converted aircraft at Joint Base Andrews on June 19, calling it a bridge aircraft until Boeing’s delayed replacement presidential jets arrive, now slated for 2028. His first official trip aboard the new plane came on July 1, and the return to the older VC-25A came less than a week later.