Trump may take first flight on new Air Force One to Mount Rushmore

The jet is the former Qatari Boeing 747-8 that was donated to the United States and accepted by the Pentagon in 2025, despite bipartisan criticism and questions about security and ethics. Months of retrofitting the $400 million luxury plane are nearly complete, and the aircraft is being painted in a red, white and blue scheme that replaces the familiar robin’s-egg-blue-and-white look associated with the traditional presidential jet. Aviation experts have estimated the total overhaul could cost more than $1 billion once the sensitive systems needed for presidential use are installed.

The White House has said the aircraft will later be turned over to Trump’s presidential library foundation at the end of his term in January 2029, after government equipment is removed. That timeline makes the plane both a temporary state asset and a political symbol, raising the kind of taxpayer optics that have shadowed the project from the start.

The trip to Mount Rushmore would land amid the federal America 250 observances, with the White House saying July 4, 2026 marks 250 years of American Independence. The National Park Service has also announced a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore National Memorial on July 3, 2026, returning after a five-year absence. Public attendance will be limited through a lottery on Recreation.gov from April 8 to April 12, with a $1 non-refundable application fee, up to four tickets per applicant and eligibility limited to U.S. residents.

Mount Rushmore, with the carved faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, has long served as a stage for messages about national identity. South Dakota officials have framed the fireworks return as a signature America 250 event, while some local and regional observers have raised wildfire concerns in the drought-prone Black Hills.