Trump Flies Qatar's Gifted $400M Air Force One to Daytona Rally as a Gust at Andrews Exposes Thinning Hair

Donald Trump flew to a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, on 30 October aboard Air Force One, a gift from Qatar. News reports value the jet at $400 million (about £300 million). At Joint Base Andrews near Washington, a gust lifted his hair as he boarded. Reuters photographs show a thinning patch on his scalp.

Those photographs came three weeks after Trump told a Texas rally his hair was 'getting a little bit thin up there.' Voters choose a new Congress on Tuesday 3 November, and the jet comes at a cost. The Air Force has estimated the refit at under $400 million.

The Gust at Joint Base Andrews

Evan Vucci, a Reuters photographer, caught the moment on the steps of the 747. His frames show the wind parting the president's hair from behind, with paler hair beneath the darker strands on top. MeidasTouch, the progressive media network, shared one on X the same day. The Daily Beast linked the ridicule to Trump's remarks on other people's looks, including his instruction to a reporter on Thursday 29 October to 'shape up'.

At the Daytona rally that night, Trump repeated a story about studying Ohio Republican senator Jon Husted from behind. He described the senator's fingers as 'like sausages'. In San Antonio on 7 October, Trump stopped his speech when a big screen showed the back of his head. Wind also lifted his hair at Joint Base Andrews in February 2018. In his 2004 book Trump: How to Get Rich, he wrote that he does not wear a wig.

What the Qatari Jet Could Cost Taxpayers

The Pentagon accepted the 747-8 jumbo jet from the Qatari government in May 2025. To carry a president, the jet needed a refit with secure communications. In June 2025, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink gave Congress the government's first cost estimate, probably under $400 million, and said nobody should expect 'a free plane'. Democrats warned the refit could pass $1 billion (about £750 million), as the graphic below shows.

Boeing agreed during Trump's first term to turn two jets into presidential aircraft under a $3.9 billion (about £2.9 billion) fixed-price contract. Those jets are now due in mid-2028. William Bailey, doing the job of the Air Force's chief weapons buyer, repeated the 'under $400 million' figure to a House subcommittee in May. Legal experts have questioned whether the arrangement complies with US constitutional and federal gift rules, and Trump called refusing it 'stupid'.

The Rally and the Jet's Future

In his second Florida rally in a week, Trump spoke for about 90 minutes at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach. Byron Donalds, the Republican candidate for Florida governor, joined him on stage that evening and spoke to the crowd. Donalds faces the Democrat David Jolly in Tuesday's vote.

The donated jet's service is temporary. The Air Force plans to fly it as Air Force One until Boeing delivers the two replacements. People familiar with a proposed plan told the US broadcaster ABC News that ownership would pass to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc., which Trump's son Eric leads, before Trump leaves office.