White House: No Final Decision on Qatar-Donated Air Force One

"No final decision has been made yet" about what happens to the Qatar-donated Air Force One after President Donald Trump's second term ends, a White House official told ABC News.

The statement, made Wednesday, muddies more than a year of assurances from Trump that the Boeing 747-8 given to him by the Qatari royal family would be handed to his presidential library once he left office. Sources familiar with the proposed arrangement have previously told ABC News that ownership would be transferred to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation shortly before the end of his term.

Open questions include whether Trump would keep the plane for personal use, leave it for the next president as part of the Air Force One fleet, or pursue some other arrangement.

The official's comments followed reports by NBC News and The New York Times casting doubt on the jet's fate. Eric Trump, who is involved in developing his father's presidential library in Miami, reportedly told NBC News in a text message that delivering the gifted jet to the library was "not the plan." "No. That's not the plan at the moment for Miami," he reportedly wrote. He suggested an older, decommissioned Air Force One would go to the library instead, NBC News reported.

The donation of the luxury jet, valued at roughly $400 million, was an unprecedented foreign gift and drew questions from some lawmakers and ethics experts. The Air Force last year estimated that retrofitting the aircraft to meet stringent security standards would cost less than $400 million, though how much has been spent is unclear. Before the jet's first presidential flight in July, the Air Force said it had been modifying the plane in Texas since September to meet security, communications and transport requirements. Many details of the work are classified.

Trump said in July that the plane would be further "maxed out" with security features in an upgrade expected to sideline it for about a month. Those remarks came after the jet carried him to July's NATO summit in Turkey, where the Secret Service urged him to fly home on the older Air Force One as a precaution, partly because of differences in security capabilities, ABC News learned at the time.

Asked about the plane's future in May 2025 by ABC News' Rachel Scott, Trump said it would go "directly" to his library, adding, "I wouldn't be using it, no." He has repeatedly cited Ronald Reagan's library, where a Boeing 707 Air Force One was retired in 2001, as a model. "Someday, it will be like Ronald Reagan, they decommission them," Trump said at the time.