Security and ethical concerns regarding the aircraft

You're listening to Trump's terms, I'm Scott Dettr The president has both an ability and a willingness to use the power of his office to think outside the box. Nobody makes a better deal than President Trump. We're gonna do better and better and better. Nobody can believe what they're watching Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's recent coverage of the forty seventh Pident withith a focus on ways his administration is pushing the boundaries of presidential power. Here's the latest PR Hi I'm Michelle Martin. President Trump has taken his first flight on the N Air Force O. He took the Boeing seven hundred forty seven luxury jet to North Dakota yesterday. NPR's Joel Rose reports on the ethics and security concerns about the plane Moments before the maiden voyage of the new Air Force O, President Trump talked to reporters at Joint Base Andrews. So this will be the Firstse flight O what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built. The recent model Boeing seven hundred forty seven was gifted last year by Qatar. It's supposed to relieve pressure on two older seven hundred forty seven s that have served as Air Force O, as a bridge until Boeing can deliver two custom planes that are years behind schedule Gone is the muted light blue color scheme replaced by bold, red, white, and blue. You can do two things. You can loc key it or you can show it. And I think the country should be very proud of it. The gift from the goovernment of Qatar raised ethical concerns from Democrats and some Republicans. President Trump though, has brushed off the criticism saying the jet will be donated to his presidential library. The gift from a foreign government also raised questions about national security, and about how long it would take to retrofit the plane for its new mission and at what cost Burkey directs the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. He says planes that serve as Air Force One have capabilities that go far beyond a standard passenger jet. Communication sweet has to be incredibly robust to handle any level of national security requirement You also have self protection elements on board. But Berkey says some of the regular standards for Air Force O may have been relaxed in order to get the job done in just over a year Thorly, a lot of these details are classified I would expect that some of those requirements were modified and they might be doing workarounds. You might see the aircraft stay stateside more than going abroad. The Air Force said in a statement that the plane is, quote, safe, secure, and equipped with the most advanced technologies, unquote, in spite of the accelerated timeline. President Trump was asked on Wednesday how much all of this costs taxpayers. He didn't say The Air Force Secretary told Congress last year that it would probably cost less than four hundred million dollars to retrofit the Qatari jet So some experts say the real number could be much higher Joel Rose in PR News, Washington. A note before we go, if you value this show and want to help keep it going free and totally easy way to support us is to rate and review Trump's terms on the platform where you listen in a world of algorithms that goes a long way toward helping us reach new listeners. If you have left a review in the past, thank you so much. I'm Scott Dettru, thanks for listening to Trump's Terms from NPR