President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday a $200 billion deal between Qatar Airways and Boeing, a lifeline for the beleaguered American aerospace giant and a powerful symbol of the diplomatic maneuvering defining his presidency.

During the second day of Trump's Middle East trip, he announced a major deal between Boeing and Qatar Airways and signed an agreement with Qatar; he also met with Syria's interim president.

Aboard Air Force One, Trump lamented to Fox News host Sean Hannity of the U.S. government plane's comparative old age of 40 years and lackluster appearance next to Qatar's, Saudi Arabia's and the United Arab Emirates' "brand new Boeing 747s."

The White House has doubled down on the proposed deal which has been criticised by some of the president's top supporters.

The prime minister of Qatar thinks gifting the U.S. president a lavish jet is nothing more than a regular government-to-government interaction. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and top diplomat,

“The Boeing 747 is being given to the United States Air Force/Department of Defense, NOT TO ME! It is a gift from a Nation, Qatar, that we have successfully defended for many years,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, late on Tuesday, May 13.

President Donald Trump arrived Wednesday in Qatar, as he’s made clear he wants the $400 million plane the country is expected to gift him, despite bipartisan criticism of security and conflict-of-interest concerns.

Qatar signed agreements to cooperate with the U.S. as well as purchase Boeing aircraft and MQ-9 drones during President Donald Trump's visit to Doha on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump announced that the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar was giving the United States a Boeing 747-8 jet to replace the aging Air Force One aircrafts used by the president. But the proposed gift has raised a maelstrom of legal questions from Democrats,

US President Donald Trump on Thursday closes a Middle East tour in the United Arab Emirates as he focuses squarely on seeking deals after billions of dollars of pledges from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.The first major trip of his second term had been scheduled to end Thursday but Trump,