Qatar Airways To Announce Major Purchase From Boeing During Trump’s Visit

Qatar Airways is set to announce that it secured an agreement to purchase 150 aircraft from Boeing while President Trump is in Doha on Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NewsNation.

Trump will travel from Saudi Arabia to Qatar in the early afternoon on Wednesday, local time, and participate in a state visit, followed hours later by a state dinner.

The Qatari deal for Boeing wide-body jets will include an option to purchase more, Bloomberg reported earlier this month, and it aligns with the Trump administration’s push for nations such as Qatar to invest in U.S. manufacturing.

Boeing told NewsNation it wouldn’t confirm the deal, and Qatar Airways did not respond to a request for comment on the announcement. A White House official told NewsNation they won’t get ahead of any announcements from the president.

Trump on Tuesday secured $600 billion in investments from Saudi Arabia, which involve Saudi Arabian company DataVolt moving forward with plans to invest $20 billion in artificial intelligence data centers and energy infrastructure in the U.S. The $600 billion deal included a $142 billion defense and security agreement that equips Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art war equipment provided by dozens of U.S. firms.

The Qatari government is also planning to gift the U.S. government a luxury Boeing 747 to be used as a new Air Force One, a controversial move that Trump has defended in recent days. Qatari officials told The Hill the plane would not be given to Trump during his trip to the country on Wednesday.

Just before leaving for his trip, Trump said it would be “stupid” not to take the gift and insisted it will go to the Defense Department then to his presidential library after he leaves office.