Donald Trump to Make First Flight on Qatar-Gifted Jet This Week

US President Donald Trump will make his first flight on a new Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar later this week, the White House said Monday.

Trump will take the jet on Wednesday to North Dakota for an event marking the 250th anniversary of US independence, a White House official told AFP. As he unveiled the plane earlier this month, Trump praised the Gulf emirate for being "so nice and providing" the modified Boeing 747, which previously served Qatar's head of state.

Billionaire Trump has been obsessed since his first



term with replacing the aging jets that serve as Air Force One, and he hand-picked the new plane's red, white and blue livery. 

But critics have raised a host of ethical, constitutional and security concerns about the gifting of an aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars by a foreign power like Qatar. 

The US Constitution prohibits presidents and other officeholders from receiving "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" unless approved by Congress.