Overview

• The Senate Appropriations Committee on July 31 rejected Sen. Chris Murphy’s amendment by a 15-14 party-line vote to prevent President Trump from taking the Boeing 747-8 after his term.
• The Pentagon assumed possession of the gifted jet on May 21 and has diverted $934 million from ICBM modernization funds to finance a classified retrofit.
• Democrats have raised Emoluments Clause concerns and cited reports that the interim Air Force One overhaul could cost nearly $1 billion without detailed Pentagon briefings.
• Sen. Mitch McConnell and other Republicans labeled Murphy’s proposal a “poison pill” and argued that decisions on the plane’s disposition should await the national defense authorization process.
• Plans for the jet’s post-presidential transfer, including an earlier Pentagon proposal to hand it to the Trump presidential library foundation, remain unresolved.