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New Air Force One jet to be ‘maxed out,’ Trump says, after security concerns raised

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after landing in Air Force One on July 19, 2026 in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) — The new Air Force One will be “maxed out” with security features, undergoing an upgrade that’s expected to put the Qatari-gifted jet out of commission for about a month, President Donald Trump said on Sunday. 

“Well, it has, it has a lot, and you know it has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out,” the president said of the newly retrofitted jet. “So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out.”

The jet had faced security concerns in the weeks since its first operational flight on July 1, when Trump flew on it to North Dakota. The plane, a Boeing 747-8 that was gifted from Qatar, later carried Trump to the NATO summit in Turkey this month.  

As Trump prepared to depart the summit, the Secret Service urged the president to take the older Air Force One jet as a precaution, due in part for the differences in security capabilities, ABC News learned at the time.

The New York Times reported that the new jet did not have the same anti-missile capabilities as the previous model. Trump’s comment on Sunday followed a reporter’s question about those claims, which ABC News has not independently confirmed.

“Mr. President, this plane does not have antimissile defense systems on it,” the reporter asked. “Why are you flying on it?”

Trump in response said the plane would be “maxed out,” a process that he expected would “take about a month.” The president did not detail exactly when the upgrades were expected to begin.

The Qatari royal family’s donation of the luxury jet valued at approximately $400 million, an unprecedented foreign gift, raised questions from some lawmakers and ethics experts. Ahead of his first flight, Trump gave credit to the Qatari government.

“Frankly, we couldn’t build a plane like this because we wouldn’t be willing to spend the kind of money necessary,” he said on July 1. “They spent top dollar.”

“I said to Boeing, ‘What’s the best one?’ They said this is the best plane ever built, and you’re going to have the privilege of flying it, and I have a privilege also of flying it,” Trump said that day.

The U.S. Air Force said it had been modifying the jet Texas since September to meet the security, communications and other needs to transport the president.

The Air Force last year originally estimated it would cost less than $400 million to retrofit the gift, though it’s unclear how much exactly has been spent so far. Many of the details of the retrofitting on the new plane are considered classified.

The gifted plane is expected to be used as the new Air Force One until shortly before Trump leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement have told ABC News.

ABC News’ Emily Chang, Sarah Kolinovsky and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Trump will need China for his new economic war against Iran. Good luck getting Xi on side

By CNN
Beijing (CNN) — When US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled “Operation Economic Outcast,” threatening damaging new sanctions on countries that refuse to stop doing business with Iran, he didn’t name the one country that could decide its success or failure: China.The world’s second largest economy has long been a critical economic lifeline for Tehran, buying up the vast majority of its oil exports – worth an estimated tens of billions in US dollars last year – in addition to other trade.Bringing it on board with the White House’s latest effort to subdue an Iranian leadership stubbornly defiant after almost six months of war, however, is an extremely tall order.Beijing flatly rejects what it calls “unilateral” US sanctions and has long defended its right to regular trade with partners like Iran and Russia. It also surmises that Washington would be wary of triggering a broader economic confrontation that would hurt both countries, right ahead of the US midterms.On Tuesday, following Bessent’s presser, China’s Foreign Ministry vowed to “take all necessary measures” to safeguard its “own legitimate rights and interests” in the face of US sanctions threats.“Economic warfare and maximum pressure will not help resolve the issue; they will only further intensify tensions and conflicts, create spillover risks, disrupt the global economic and financial order,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.Bessent’s threat also comes ahead of a highly anticipated visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to the US next month, where the two sides could make progress on extending a critical trade truce set to expire later this fall.Trump earlier said that he did not ask Xi “for any favors” on Iran during a May meeting between the two – a statement, which, if correct, will likely smell to Beijing of American desperation to end the conflict.What’s left now is a careful calculus for both countries in how they navigate what Bessent has said will be a period of “quiet diplomacy” – or privately issuing ultimatums to Iran’s economic partners, which the Treasury chief did not specifically name during his press conference.Chinese analysts suggest limited space for Washington’s demands: “China is unlikely to accept a situation in which Washington determines what Chinese companies can legally trade with third countries,” said Zhao Long, director of the Institute for International Strategic and Security Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.“That would establish a precedent that US secondary sanctions can effectively determine China’s commercial relations with third countries,” he said.What Washington could doChina imports Iranian oil using a shadowy system that’s by design insulated from the US dollar system – and sanctions.Private, so-called teapot refineries, purchase and process US-sanctioned Iranian crude, relying on a network of ports, financial institutions and tankers that are often similarly firewalled from international exposure. China hasn’t recorded these purchases officially in years, since after the US re-imposed sanctions on Iran when the first Trump administration backed out of the Obama-era Iranian nuclear deal.But pressure points do exist, analysts say.“When you look at the upstream ownership of these entities, you’ll find many are directly or indirectly held by major Chinese state-owned entities that are heavily integrated into the US dollar system,” said Max Meizlish, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank in Washington.“By sanctioning their subsidiaries, the US can apply pressure on the parents to divest at risk of being deemed as providing direct or indirect support to sanctioned entities,” he said.Bessent earlier this year said Washington has sent warnings to two unnamed Chinese banks about their role in Iran-linked transactions. When asked on Monday during his press conference what measures the US would take against non-compliant Chinese banks and shipping firms, he said “no one is above” facing US sanctions.Despite the tough talk, Beijing has seen the US threaten – and then back off – sweeping sanctions before. And it also knows Washington is acutely aware of China’s significant economic leverage over the US, especially in the form of its grip on the global supply of strategically critical rare earths.“If Washington crossed that threshold (of sanctioning major Chinese banks), Beijing would almost certainly respond, and the political atmosphere for a summit (between Trump and Xi) would deteriorate sharply,” said Sun Chenghao, a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security and Strategy in Beijing.Such a move might not automatically cancel their meeting, but it would “shift the summit from stabilization toward damage control,” he said.Summit considerationsBoth sides will be weighing up the impact of escalation to that summit, expected to be the first state visit by Xi to the US in 11 years.While Beijing will not want to be seen to be cooperating with a sanctions regime it opposes, there are careful maneuvers it could take – such as quietly reducing oil purchases or elevating its political messaging to Tehran and efforts to encourage restraint.Chinese purchases of Iranian oil have already declined sharply compared to last year as the US blockade has constrained Iranian crude exports.Chinese analysts have also in recent weeks suggested there are overlaps between the interests of Washington and Beijing, especially in terms of seeing trade flows restored in the Strait of Hormuz, which has been choked by the conflict, and restoring broader regional stability, also conductive to trade.And Beijing has in recent days re-upped its messaging urging restraint and normal operations around the Strait.In a joint statement following a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Beijing on Monday, Xi called for the restoration of “normal passage” through the Strait and a “comprehensive solution” to the conflict.Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Miao Deyu said last week while hosting Iranian officials in Beijing that China was “actively committed to promoting peace talks.”Even still, Beijing has shown itself wary of playing a direct mediator role in the conflict, preferring a position where it protects its own economic interests – and plays up its image as a stable power that supports regional peace, in contrast to Washington’s vacillations.Any cooperation with the US in restoring regional peace “should not be reduced to ‘doing Trump a favor,’” said Zhao in Shanghai.“Beijing is willing to contribute to ending the crisis, but it is not willing to become an instrument of Washington’s maximum-pressure strategy.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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