In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to accept a replacement jet for Air Force One offered by Qatar, a rumor that then-President Barack Obama accepted the same gift from the Gulf nation in 2015 spread online. The claim primarily spread on Facebook (archived, archived, archived), but it also appeared on Instagram Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived), beginning on May 11, 2025.
The wording of the claim across the posts was similar (if not identical). It read:
In 2015, President Obama accepted a "sky palace" jet as a gift from Qatar. "Everybody relax," he said. Everybody did. Then he tariffed the economy into recession, ignored the Constitution, and threw himself a $92M birthday parade. Remember?
Some commenters claimed to remember the event, while others expressed skepticism. It appears the author intended a tone of sarcasm, as a means of comparing public scrutiny of Obama to that of Trump's recent actions.
The skeptics were right to doubt. There is no evidence Obama accepted such a gift from Qatar, and no outlet reported this transaction taking place. The U.S. State Department documented all gifts Qatar gave Obama and his family in 2015. We reached out to Obama's current office, and a spokesperson confirmed via email that the claim was false.
First, a simple Google search (archived) with the keywords: "Obama jet from Qatar 2015" (excluding results related to Trump) revealed only the above claims and other tangentially related links, but did not turn up any stories from 2015 or results with evidence from credible sources related to the claim.
Second, in 2016, the State Department published a comprehensive report of gifts received from foreign governments. The report listed several lavish gifts from Qatar (archived), none of which included a jet plane.
In sum, because there is no evidence Obama accepted a jet plane from Qatar in 2015 and a 2016 State Department report of all gifts his administration received from foreign governments did not include such a gift, we rate this claim false.