Trump expected to use Qatari-gifted Air Force One for overseas travel next week: Sources
It would be the jet's first foreign trip since the secret plane-swap in July.
President Donald Trump is expected to fly aboard the new Air Force One gifted to the U.S. by Qatar when he travels to Ireland next week, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News, marking his first foreign trip on the jet since he secretly switched planes in July while leaving a NATO summit in Turkey amid threats against him from Iran.
The news of his expected overseas travel on the jet comes after Trump told reporters in July that the plane was going to be "maxed out" -- a process that would happen "in about a month or so" he said.
"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," Trump said, adding the process would take about a month.
It's not clear whether the plane has received any type of security enhancement since Trump's comments or whether the "maxed out" work the president has suggested is still planned, sources familiar with the matter said.
"We don't comment on specific upgrades or modifications to Air Force Once. We maintain a consistent posture that ensures a safe, secure, and reliable capability for the President of the United States and routinely evolve the capability as required to maintain that posture. It is the greatest Presidential plane ever built," a senior administration official told ABC News.
The president last flew on the jet last week.
The news of his expected travel to Ireland on the jet was first reported by The Washington Post.
Faced with threats on his life from Iran, Trump in July participated in an elaborate plan to hide his flight from Turkey to the United Kingdom using a catering food truck and a military aircraft, sources told ABC News.
Instead of flying on his old Air Force One or his new Qatari-gifted jet, Trump secretly boarded a smaller, Air Force C-32A military jet to leave the international summit in Ankara in early July, the Post reported.
The secret mission was carried out without the knowledge of members of the press traveling with the president and even some White House officials who were still aboard the old Air Force One.
After the news broke last month of Trump's secret flight out of Turkey, Trump told reporters that the plot to employ a passenger-filled "decoy" Air Force One was the work of the Secret Service and the military.
"It's only up to Secret Service. I just follow what they'd like to do," Trump told reporters last month.
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