The inside story of Trump's search for a new Air Force One

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

92% : After Trump looked at the plane, one thing was clear: It was love at first sight.
77% : Love at first sight By mid-February, Qatar had agreed to send the jet to Florida when Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort, so he could see the plane firsthand.
70% : Trump, though, wanted a new plane while he was still in office.
65% : A new paint job, his allies in the White House figured, and few other quick upgrades, and it could be ready within the year for Trump to fly.
63% : 'A gift, free of charge' By the time Trump toured the aircraft on Feb. 15, discussions about how to acquire it had changed.
60% : They were willing to send the jet to Florida for Trump to take a personal tour.
50% : Elon Musk had been tasked with pushing Boeing to move faster on them, but Air Force officials were projecting that it would now be 2027, at the earliest, before the first of the two new planes would be ready for Trump.
49% : The talk among senior aides to Trump shifted from a government-to-government sale to a donation.
47% : But how? "We're the United States of America," Trump said this month.
46% : Foulkrod said preparing the new plane for use by a U.S. president would take years -- pushing any chance for Trump to use it out past 2027.
43% : Trump left his club for the short drive to the airport and stepped out of his limousine about 10 a.m., to lay eyes on a plane that once had been used by the Qatari royal family.
42% : Now Trump had to fly around in the same old planes that transported President George H.W. Bush 35 years ago.
41% : Trump insisted that the planned donation was not a personal gift to him, but to the Defense Department, and that it would go to his presidential library after he leaves office.
39% : " There are lingering questions about how much financial sense the still-unsigned deal would make, given the costs of refitting the plane for presidential use and operating it over the long run -- or even whether the plane could be ready for Trump to use before the end of his second term.
38% : Trump cited the fact the President Ronald Reagan's library had a decommissioned older model of an Air Force presidential jet on display as precedent for his foundation to take possession of a still-operational aircraft.
37% : Even flying the plane to the United States so Trump could kick the tires was a wildly expensive endeavor.
34% : Soon after Trump took office, military officials started to discuss how the United States could buy a temporary plane for Trump to use while Boeing's work creaked along, an investigation by The New York Times found.
32% : The outlines of the arrangement that emerged have also drawn condemnation from Democrats and Republicans in Washington, as well as ethics lawyers, who said it looked either like Trump himself was taking the gift or that the Qataris were using it to curry favor with the administration.
27% : Qatar has denied any intention of using the transaction as part of an influence campaign, and Trump has said he would not use the plane after leaving office.
26% : Trump could also waive requirements for advanced security systems on the plane -- although former Pentagon officials said this would be a mistake, as the plane is an essential part of the nation's military defense during wartime.
23% : Even if the terms of the transfer are finalized, current and former Air Force acquisition officials have cautioned that getting the Qatari plane ready to be used by Trump would not be easy.

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