【By Observer Net, Shao Yun】

According to Xinhua News Agency, the U.S. Department of Defense officially accepted a Boeing 747-8 luxury aircraft gifted by Qatar in May as a "gift," and the U.S. Air Force has been ordered to quickly upgrade it into a "Air Force One" presidential jet for use by Trump. On July 27, it was reported that the Pentagon had allegedly diverted $934 million in "mysterious funds" from the budget for nuclear missile maintenance and upgrades to the renovation of the new "Air Force One."

According to documents provided by the Pentagon to Congress, the aforementioned "mysterious funds" were nominally transferred to an unnamed classified project, but in recent weeks, U.S. congressional budget analysts have begun to believe that these funds "almost certainly" include the cost of renovating the new "Air Force One."

Although it is unclear whether all the funds will be used for the renovation of the new "Air Force One," U.S. Air Force officials are said to have privately admitted that they have indeed used the funds from the "Sentinel" land-based silo-launched intercontinental ballistic missile project. "Sentinel" is the United States' next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile, intended to replace the current "Minuteman-3" missiles, but due to severe budget overruns, it has been required to restructure the project, with its first flight test repeatedly delayed.

On February 15, 2025, local time, after visiting, the Qatari Boeing 747 aircraft was parked at the Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, USA. Social media

In 2020, the U.S. Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a contract for the "Sentinel" project, which includes the complete modernization of 450 intercontinental missile silos spread across five states, and replacing 400 existing "Minuteman-3" missiles on a 1:1 basis, making it a new member of the U.S. "nuclear triad" deterrent force.

The "Sentinel" project was initially expected to cost approximately $96 billion, but according to the Pentagon's estimate, the cost has now expanded to nearly $141 billion, an 81% overrun, exceeding the threshold set by the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment, triggering a review. According to the law, the "Sentinel" project requires a Secretary of Defense certification to continue. This February, the military removed the approval for the "milestone B" phase of the "Sentinel" missile entering the engineering and manufacturing stage.

U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink acknowledged during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on defense in June that the U.S. Air Force had withdrawn some "non-urgent" funds from the "Sentinel" project in fiscal year 2024 to be used for the new "Air Force One." However, he emphasized that this would not further delay the progress of the "Sentinel" project, and the Pentagon would later replenish these funds.

Meink also stated that this portion of the funds was originally "going to be spent anyway," just being "advanced." He denied the external concerns about the potential $1 billion cost of the "Air Force One" renovation, stating, "We believe the actual cost of modifying this plane may be less than $4 billion," and it is expected to take more than a year.

However, previous aviation experts estimated the actual renovation cost could be as high as $1.5 billion, and it would take several years to complete. Former U.S. intelligence officials and international security experts previously described the renovation of the new "Air Force One" as a "nightmare" for intelligence agencies, as it would necessarily require a significant amount of time to "carpet search" the donated aircraft for any possible tracking or eavesdropping devices, followed by complex modifications to make it suitable for presidential use, which would undoubtedly be costly and time-consuming.

U.S. Congressional budget officials stated that the aforementioned $934 million in "mysterious funds" has now been filled back through a budget coordination bill passed a few weeks ago. However, this approach has already caused dissatisfaction among Congress.

"The more we learn about this project, the more concerned we become," said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, "accepting a private aircraft donated by a foreign country as Air Force One involves serious security risks and ethical issues. What is even more worrying is that the government is diverting funds from the nuclear modernization budget to renovate this plane."

Shaheen criticized the move as undermining the credibility of the U.S. government, saying it was "funding a vanity project for President Trump."

In fact, when news of Qatar's plan to gift Trump a plane was exposed in May, it quickly sparked public outrage in the United States. Public opinion questioned the existence of conflicts of interest and moral issues, as well as violations of the law, and Democrats quickly seized the opportunity to accuse Trump of "corruption."

Facing criticism from all sides, at a press conference on the morning of May 12 local time, when asked about the moral controversy triggered by accepting the luxurious plane from Qatar, Trump showed anger, retorting that only "idiots" would refuse such a gift.

Trump denounced the related reports as "fake news" and defended himself, claiming that the gift from Qatar was given to the U.S. Department of Defense, not to him personally. He insisted that he would not use the plane after leaving the presidency. Trump emphasized that the plane would be retired from military use and directly transferred to the presidential library established for him. Trump also said that Qatar's gift was a response to the protection offered by the United States.

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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7532122441791930930/

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