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While flying on Air Force One with Fox News host Sean Hannity, President Donald Trump complained about his plane looking “much smaller” and “much less impressive” when parked next to the ones for various Arab leaders.

Reports that the president planned to accept a $400 million “flying palace” luxury plane from Qatar drew swift and sharp controversy this week — including from scores of Republican elected officials and MAGA/conservative commentators. One issue that drew specific condemnation was the report that the plane would be transferred to Trump’s presidential library after his term ended — presumably available for his personal use — and not retained for the next president to use.

Nonetheless, Trump has continued to defend the idea, including during his trip this week to Saudi Arabia and his interview with Hannity.

“The plane that you are on right now is almost 40 years old,” said Trump.

“And when you land and you see Saudi Arabia, and you see [United Arab Emirates], and you see Qatar, and you see all these — they have these brand new Boeing 747s mostly,” he continued. “And you see ours next to it. This is like a totally different plane. It’s much smaller, it’s much less impressive — as impressive as it is. We are the United States of America — I believe we should have the most impressive plane.”

“Some people say, oh,

you shouldn’t accept gifts for the country,” Trump argued. “My attitude is, why wouldn’t I accept a gift? We’re giving to everybody else, why wouldn’t I accept a gift? Because it’s going to be a couple of years, I think, before the Boeings are finished — and they will be wonderful when they are finished — but that’s a long time.”

“Isn’t it part of your argument how the United States has paid untold billions and trillions of dollars securing every aspect of the world?” Hannity said.

“I said, we’ve secured that part of the world for many years,” Trump concurred. “So if somebody makes a gift, I’m not getting — I get nothing, I get to fly it like any other president would.”

“So the U.S. has kind of given them gifts. It’s called national defense, and security,” said Hannity. The Fox News host did not ask about the reports that the plane would be transferred to Trump’s library.

“We give a lot of gifts, too many gifts to be honest with you,” said Trump. “We give gifts to defend countries that wouldn’t even exist, many countries wouldn’t even exist, all over the world, countries wouldn’t even exist. But I thought it was a beautiful gesture.

Now, there are those that say we shouldn’t be accepting gifts in the Defense Department, and I would say only a stupid person would say that. Why wouldn’t they we do that? So it helps us out because we will have a relatively new plane instead of having 40-year-old planes. These planes are 40 years old, and that’s not representative of our country.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

Tags: Air Force One, Donald Trump, Qatar