Let’s talk about planes, power, and priorities.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just found nearly a billion dollars — $934 million to be exact — hidden deep in the Pentagon couch cushions. That money was supposed to fund Sentinel, a $77.7 billion modernization project for America’s aging nuclear missile system. Instead, it’s being rerouted to a classified project.
But here’s what we know about that classified project, thanks to reporting from The New York Times: part of it is funding a personal, Qatar-backed Air Force One project for President Trump.
Yes, you heard that right. Remember that Boeing 747-8 plane that the Qatari royal family donated to Trump earlier this year, well, it’s now being retrofitted for the commander-in-chief. The Secretary of the Air Force estimates the job will cost “less than $400 million,” but aviation experts and engineers say that number is optimistic at best.
NBC News reported that the actual cost could climb north of $1 billion — possibly more — especially since the aircraft needs to be stripped nearly to the studs to install encrypted communications, harden defenses, and protect against cyber and physical threats.
And the kicker? This plane probably won’t even be used for long. President Trump has said it will eventually be housed at his yet-to-be-built presidential library after he leaves office in 2029.
That library, by the way, is shaping up to be quite the monument to Trump’s legal and financial battles. He’s already received two settlements — one from Disney and another from Paramount, totaling $32 million — to fund it. That’s not exactly the “people’s library,” is it?
Let me be clear: there are ethical questions here — like, why we’re accepting a jet from a foreign government, even a friendly one like Qatar.
The Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution prevents the president from accepting a gift from a “King, Prince, or foreign State,” without congressional consent.
But even if you put that aside for a moment, there’s a much bigger issue that should concern Democrats, Republicans, and especially so-called fiscal conservatives: We’re spending money we simply don’t have.
CBS News recently dug into Treasury Department reports and found that in Trump’s first 100 days back in office, the federal government spent more than $200 billion more than it had during the same period last year. We’re spending more, day-to-day, than we have in nine of the past ten years. The only year that beats this one was 2021 — the height of the pandemic, when we were trying to avoid a full-blown economic collapse.
And just this month, the president signed what he called a “big, beautiful bill” into law. Beautiful for whom, exactly? Because the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says it’s going to add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. That’s not a rounding error. That’s generational debt.
So when we look at this reboot of Air Force One — a Qatari jet, rerouted Pentagon funds, and a cost that could spiral into the billions — we have to ask: Whom is this actually serving? It’s not the next president. It’s not the American taxpayer. And it’s certainly not the men and women who depend on the defense programs now losing funding.
It’s just another example of how power — when unchecked — bends systems to personal benefit.
So here’s my lens: Whether you’re red or blue, MAGA or moderate, we should all be able to agree that national defense dollars should not become personal vanity projects. Not when families are struggling, the deficit is ballooning, and our country’s infrastructure — both physical and financial — needs urgent attention.
Because the true cost of this plane won’t be measured in dollars alone. It’ll be measured in what we neglected to fund instead.
Lindsey Granger is a News Nation contributor and co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising.” This column is an edited transcription of her on-air commentary.
