US President Donald Trump took his first trip aboard the new Air Force One on Wednesday, flying to North Dakota aboard a Boeing 747-8 gifted to the United States by the Qatari government last year, according to a report by CBS News.

Trump unveiled the aircraft, valued at $400 million, earlier this month. It is replacing the military-grade 747-200 that has served US presidents for more than three decades and is expected to remain in service until a new fleet of Boeing aircraft is delivered to the Air Force in 2028, CBS News reported.

On the North Dakota trip, Trump was scheduled to take part in a train ride and welcome ceremony marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, followed by a visit to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, according to the report.

Speaking at Joint Base Andrews ahead of the trip, the president marked the moment, saying, "This will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built."

"I'm excited about the first flight. Nobody's ever seen anything like it," Trump said. "They just completed it; they made it appropriate for a president—that means the security and all the different bells and whistles they put on—very complex stuff. But it's really quite something."

The president claimed it cost taxpayers "very little" to upgrade the plane "relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way." He called it "a gift from a country that's treated us very well."

The Air Force said it prioritized operational readiness over aesthetics in its upgrades, leaving the plane's "interior layout minimally changed." White House Communications Director Steven Cheung shared photos on X from the plane's interior, which appeared to show large conference tables, leather seats, and some glossy wood paneling.

The plane also includes a spacious press cabin, according to a pool reporter onboard, with lie-flat seats that feature a massage function and individual TV screens. 

Trump noted that the old plane was more than 30 years old and said, "It would be parked next to the new ones like this, and it really didn't look appropriate for our country."

"So we're really proud of this," he said. "The country's very proud of it."

Source: CBS News