Murkowski previously questioned the Qatari Air Force One; Trump has now flown it

President Trump took his first flight Wednesday aboard the Boeing 747 that Qatar donated to serve as an interim Air Force One — an arrangement Alaska's senior senator was among the Republicans to question when it first surfaced.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski said last year that the roughly $400 million gift raised enough questions to give the president pause. She told reporters she had "a lot of concerns," and doubted it would move forward: "I don't imagine it's going to go forward, but maybe?"

It moved forward. The Qatari royal family donated the 747-8 to the Defense Department in 2025, and the Air Force spent months bringing it up to presidential standards while Boeing's U.S.-built VC-25B replacements — still roughly two years out — remain under construction. Trump has cast the jet as a practical bridge that cost taxpayers "very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way," and praised Qatar as a U.S. ally.

The concerns Murkowski gestured at haven't gone away. Government-ethics and national-security groups, including the Project On Government Oversight, warn that a foreign-provided presidential aircraft could create perceived leverage over U.S. decisions and sets a troubling precedent. Others note it sidelines American manufacturing — namely Boeing — at a moment when the VC-25B delays already have the domestic industry under strain.