By Meridith McGraw and Marcus Weisgerber

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — A new paint job. Lie-flat leather seats. And library bookcases.

President Trump on Wednesday took his maiden flight on his long-awaited new Air Force One, a Boeing 747-8 luxury jet that was given to the U.S. by the Qatari government. A Wall Street Journal reporter was among a small group of reporters on the trip.

The jet has undergone a $400 million overhaul to equip it with state-of-the-art security and technology for the president, such as a new communications system. The renovation also included some alterations to the lavish interiors of the Qatari royal family's private plane.

The president pored over exterior designs for the plane, which replaces the old Air Force One's signature white and baby blue color scheme with a red, white, navy and gold paint job that resembles the look of Trump's personal jet.

The press cabin of the new plane is more spacious than it was on the previous Air Force One, filling the back corner of the jet. Senior White House staff and security officials sit in a separate area nearby. Each seat, constructed of cream and tan leather with polished wood trim, can lie flat, features a massage function and is equipped with an individual television.

The only channel available on the televisions on Wednesday: Fox News. The televisions otherwise displayed an American flag with the presidential seal. Presidential seals were also affixed to the inside walls of the plane. The galley space for the plane's Air Force crew featured a kitchen, leather benches, and room to prepare drinks and meals. Each crew member wore a large black and gold pin with the presidential seal.

The president landed in North Dakota on Wednesday for the opening of Theodore Roosevelt's presidential library.

"This will be the first flight of what I think is maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built," Trump told reporters Wednesday morning before boarding. "Nobody's ever seen anything like it."

The new plane will be in temporary use until two presidential aircraft that have long been delayed are delivered.

The jet replaces the Boeing 747-200 aircraft that had served as Air Force One since George H.W. Bush's presidency. The plane was donated to the U.S. by the Qatari government last year after Trump complained that the presidential planes he flew on were too old and small.

Trump has dismissed criticism over the donation, including concerns from both Democrats and Republicans about the ethics and national security implications of accepting the plane.

"You can do two things — you can low-key it, or you can show it, and I think the country should be very proud of it," Trump said.

Trump has wanted a new presidential plane since his first term. Despite choosing Boeing in 2017 to modify two 747s, the project has faced numerous setbacks. Neither plane has flown, and the Air Force doesn't expect to receive the first aircraft until mid-2028.

In the fall of 2024, around the time Trump was re-elected president, the Air Force began looking at other options. A new 747 was out of the question since Boeing stopped manufacturing the plane in 2023, so Air Force officials began looking at the market for used aircraft.

There were only about four dozen 747-8i, the newest passenger version of the 747, in existence. Ten of those were VIP private jets and none of them were in the U.S. One of them was the Qatari plane Trump is flying on for the first time this week.

Trump toured the Qatari plane at Palm Beach International Airport in February 2025. Ownership of the plane was transferred to the U.S. Air Force in the spring 2025. It was then sent to an L3Harris Technologies facility in Texas, where an overhaul began to install specialized communications equipment that would allow the president to make secure voice and video calls as if he were in the White House. Trump said the plane is also equipped with Elon Musk's Starlink high-speed satellite internet.

The objective was to deliver the plane before the country's 250th birthday festivities, said Jason Lambert, president of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance at L3Harris Technologies. Despite being more than a decade old, the aircraft had a low number of flight hours, he said.

The Air Force said in a statement the aircraft is "safe, secure and equipped with the most advanced technologies necessary to meet the requirements of the presidential mission," and added that the overhaul gave priority to "mission over aesthetics, leaving much of the previous head of state interior layout minimally changed."

Some of the changes to the interiors include the removal of Arabic-language exit signs and the contemporary artwork once enjoyed by the Qatari royals, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. The plane's plush leather seats and couches and faux library bookcases will remain, although U.S. presidential seals will be affixed to the walls. Patriotic pieces of art, including a photo of a duck swimming in the Reflecting Pool, were hung on some of the walls of the plane.

While the plane was being modified in Texas, the company built a 3-D virtual model inside a hangar at Joint Base Andrews so that flight crews and maintenance workers could familiarize themselves with the new plane, Lambert said.

Since the new plane uses different types of ovens, the Air Force obtained a few so the crews could practice cooking before the plane arrived, an Air Force official said.

In all, the modifications took L3Harris about 10 months from when it received the plane, Lambert said.

To accommodate the massive, two-story Boeing 747-8, the U.S. Air Force constructed a custom $320 million, 400,000-square-foot hangar complex at Joint Base Andrews.

After North Dakota, the president is expected to travel to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota on Friday, a day before the Independence Day celebrations in Washington. Trump said the new jet would do a flyover during Saturday's event.

Write to Meridith McGraw at Meridith.McGraw@WSJ.com and Marcus Weisgerber at marcus.weisgerber@wsj.com