WASHINGTON (AP) — A red, white and blue color scheme championed by President Donald Trump will become the new look for Air Force One, the U.S. military said Thursday.
The Air Force said a “red, white, gold and dark blue paint scheme” will be used for the updated jet that is slated to serve as Air Force One as well as other, smaller jets that routinely fly other top government officials.
The military released a rendering of the new look that matches an airplane model that has been seen in the Oval Office for meetings with foreign leaders.
Boeing is in the process of modifying two of its 747-800 aircraft that are slated to replace the existing fleet of two aging Boeing 747-200 aircraft that the president currently uses and that take on the Air Force One call sign when the president is aboard.
In 2018, Trump directed that those new jets would ditch the iconic Kennedy-era blue-and-white design for a white-and-navy color scheme. Instead, the top half of the plane would have been white, while the bottom, including the belly, would have been dark blue. A streak of dark red would have run from the cockpit to the tail. The coloring was almost identical to the exterior of Trump’s personal plane.
An Air Force review had suggested the darker colors would increase costs and delay delivery of the new jumbo jets, and President Joe Biden reversed the decision in March 2023.
Trump told reporters last month that “we want power blue, not baby blue,” referring to the current color of the aircraft.
“Everything has its time and place. We’ll be changing the colors,” Trump added.
The Air Force's statement says a third 747-8i Boeing jet will be painted in the same colors.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jet from Qatar last May for use as Air Force One despite questions about the ethics and legality of taking the expensive gift from a foreign nation.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers last June that the security modifications to the jet would cost less than $400 million but provided no details.
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
CHICAGO (AP) — From jokes about his well-known stubbornness to tears grieving the loss of a parent, the adult children of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. gave an emotional tribute Wednesday honoring the legacy of the late civil rights icon, a day after his death.
Jackson died Tuesday at his home in Chicago after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his ability to move and speak. Standing on the steps outside his longtime Chicago home, five of his children, including U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, remembered him not only for his decades-long work in civil rights but also for his role as spiritual leader and father.
“Our father is a man who dedicated his life to public service to gain, protect and defend civil rights and human rights to make our nation better, to make the world more just, our people better neighbors with each other," said his youngest son, Yusef Jackson, fighting back tears at times.
The family said details on funeral arrangements for Jackson would be announced at a later time, but services will begin next week, with him lying in repose at the headquarters of the organization he founded, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago, which his son Yusef oversees. Services will follow at a church large enough to accommodate expected crowds.
Jackson rose to prominence six decades ago as a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., joining the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. King later dispatched Jackson to Chicago to launch Operation Breadbasket, a Southern Christian Leadership Conference effort to pressure companies to hire Black workers.
Jackson was with King on April 4, 1968, when the civil rights leader was slain.
Remembrances have poured in worldwide for Jackson, including flowers left outside the home where large portraits of a smiling Jackson had been placed. But his children said he was a family man first.
“Our father took fatherhood very seriously,” his eldest child, Santita Jackson, said. “It was his charge to keep.”
His children's reflections were poetic in the style of the late civil rights icon — filled with prayer, tears and a few chuckles, including about disagreements that occur when growing up in a large, lively family.
His eldest son, Jesse Jackson Jr., a former congressman, said his father's funeral services would welcome all, “Democrat, Republican, liberal and conservative, right wing, left wing — because his life is broad enough to cover the full spectrum of what it means to be an American.”
The family asked only that those attending be respectful.
“If his life becomes a turning point in our national political discourse, amen,” he said. “His last breath is not his last breath.”
Darius Brooks is emotional during a news conference regarding the death of the Rev. Jesse Jacksond outside the family home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Santita Jackson speaks during a news conference regarding the death of her father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, outside the family home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Yusef Jackson speaks during a news conference regarding the death of his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, outside the family home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Congressman Jonathan Jackson speaks during a news conference regarding the death of his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, outside the family home Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Jesse Jackson, Jr. stands near a picture of his father, the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, during a news conference outside the family home in Chicago, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
