Donald J. Trump praises new Air Force One, touts military "victories" and economic claims at Joint Base Andrews

Donald J. Trump, who introduced himself as "the 45th and 47th president of the United States," addressed a crowd at Joint Base Andrews to unveil and praise a newly refitted presidential aircraft and to thank military and industry personnel involved in the project.

He described the plane as "the world's most luxurious" and said it was transformed into a "flying White House" in about 10 months, praising the work of the Presidential Airlift Group, the 89th Airlift Wing and contractors including Boeing and L3 Harris. "They put a lot of things on here that normally you wouldn't do," he said, adding that the craft includes advanced communications and multiple redundant systems, including Starlink.

Trump used the event to make a series of claims about U.S. foreign-policy and economic developments, framing them as accomplishments. He said that in recent actions "in one week virtually we knocked out their entire navy, their entire air force," referring to Iran; he also said about maritime traffic that "there were a lot of them, about 700 of them" flowing out of the strait and predicted oil prices would fall. He said the U.S. economy was strong and that "we have 19.2 trillion dollars coming into our country from other countries and people." These assertions were presented as his statements during the remarks and are reported here as such; they were not verified in the speech itself.

Trump thanked named service leaders and industry figures, including Troy Mink, Michael Duffy, Daniel Kaine, General Kenneth Wilsbach and Chris Kubasic, and he praised the pilots who operate presidential aircraft, singling out Air Force Colonel Pete Donley and Lieutenant Colonel Tyler Sandborn. He also announced plans for an extensive July 4th flyover led by the new aircraft and said the press would be taken on a short tour of the plane after his remarks.

At several points he tied the aircraft and military praise to broader diplomatic relationships, thanking the Amir of Qatar and saying he had asked for use of a new 747; he also referenced Venezuela, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and European partners while discussing regional developments and defense assistance.

The event combined ceremonial elements—a repeated refrain of "God bless the USA"—with policy-oriented claims and promotional remarks about the aircraft and base improvements. Many of the substantive numeric and operational claims Trump made in the remarks are reported here as his statements and are not independently corroborated in the speech.

The remarks concluded with thanks to the service members and civilian staff at Joint Base Andrews and an invitation for the press to tour the new aircraft.