President Trump unveiled a Boeing 747, a gift from Qatar that was overhauled by L3Harris Technologies and is set to join the Air Force One fleet with a custom livery https://t.co/og9LfYHq5ypic.twitter.com/iwXxs9z637
“This plane was transformed into a flying White House at a level of luxury that nobody has ever seen before,” Trump said from inside the massive Joint Base Andrews hangar, as a couple hundred assembled Air Force personnel looked on. He spoke after stepping off the new plane in a dramatic flourish, as his signature tune “God Bless the USA” played.
[…]
The administration formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jet from Qatar last year to be used as the presidential airplane, despite questions about the ethics and legality of accepting such an expensive gift from a foreign government. Trump has insisted in the past that he would not fly around in the Qatari jet once he leaves office and said it would instead be donated to a future presidential library.
Who needs ethics and legality when you have luxury and a big toy for your presidential library?
Then, in late February, much of that activity ground to a halt. Unlike its neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have pipelines that can bypass the Strait of Hormuz, Qatar is geographically trapped behind the waterway.
Within 24 hours of the Iranian blockade, QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy giant, announced it couldn’t fulfill its contracts. Two weeks later, Iranian missiles and drones struck Qatar’s Ras Laffan plant, damaging critical equipment and causing a 17 percent reduction in Qatar’s production capacity.
The damage means that even if the strait were to open tomorrow, it would take years to return to prewar output. Analysts estimate that QatarEnergy has already lost billions of dollars since the war started, and every day that the strait remains closed, the country bleeds hundreds of millions more in lost sales and shipping charter fees.
The International Monetary Fund expects Qatar’s economy to shrink 8.6 percent this year before rebounding in 2027. For countries like Qatar, each day the strait is closed further darkens the outlook, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, chief economist at the I.M.F., said at a recent briefing.
Trump even noted this, sort of, in his speech praising the plane.
While I am used to the iconic Kennedy-era paint job for Air Force One, I will admit that I like the version above just fine, and may even prefer it (for those who think I am incapable of saying anything positive about anything Trump does).
Aesthetics aside, I find the whole thing to be another part of the parade of grotesqueries. The plane is obviously the Qataris currying favor with Trump personally. And the whole thing is about Trump treating his office like his personal plaything. It is also a striking reminder that Trump does not care about anyone other than himself.
None of this is a revelation, but it does bear remembering.
I do wonder if this ever makes it to his library and even if the library is built. With the plane, I expect that there are lawsuits waiting to be filed and if there is a Dem trifecta in 2028… The prep for the library is being funded by other donors, currying his favor, that are likely to disappear when he leaves office and probably dead.
Re the paint: I favor the Kennedy era finish, but this is entirely normal in appearance.
2
gVOR10
Talk about your foreign emoluments. @Sleeping Dog:, yeah, I bet there are going to be lawsuits. L3Harris didn’t exactly donate their work, or get paid by the Qataris. IIRC there’s 400 mil of taxpayer money in that thing. And Trump thinks he gets to keep it. The Reflecting Pool pales in comparison.
4
Kathy
I think the livery constitutes airframe abuse.
Can a future government exercise eminent domain on the plane?
2
Gustopher
He’s certainly excited about a used airplane.
I get it, I come from a family that couldn’t always afford a new car, and we could only get a used car and a lot of those were pretty old. It’s new to you. And it often needed a bit of work. And didn’t last long.
Still, seems a bit emblematic of the “winning” of the Trump era that he’s so excited about a used plane.
We also had a pool that often had an algae problem.
5
Scott F.
As the “plane is obviously the Qataris currying favor with Trump personally” and this is what “favor” looks like…
Within 24 hours of the Iranian blockade, QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy giant, announced it couldn’t fulfill its contracts. Two weeks later, Iranian missiles and drones struck Qatar’s Ras Laffan plant, damaging critical equipment and causing a 17 percent reduction in Qatar’s production capacity.
…maybe something good can come from ETTD. Now, foreign countries may think twice about the return on investment when scheming to corrupt Trump.
5
Joe
@gVOR10: He would like the reflecting pool to pale. That would be an improvement.
@Scott F.: I think the message is only to bribe Trump for an immediate benefit because long term goodwill does not exist for him.
4
Rob1
Two quick thoughts:
– Giving Trump a gift (a really expensive gift) doesn’t ensure one against joining the ranks of his victims and collaterally damaged.
– Considering the outcome of his hasty Reflection Pool “makeover,” and given that this Qatar gift wasn’t received in hand all that too long ago, this aircraft makeover maybe kinda iffy.
I come from a family that couldn’t always afford a new car, and we could only get a used car
This is not a point of pride for everyone then.
My family could afford new cars and still bought used because of my parents’ Protestant frugality. My dad’s rants about the rapid depreciation of new cars still ring in my ears.
Anyway, in retirement my mom recently got the first new automobile I’ve ever seen in our family garage. Daddy will still only buy used pickups. And I would be hard-pressed to buy a new vehicle, such is the stickiness of my upbringing. It would take a lot of convincing. Seems like a gluttonous waste of money.
4
a country lawyer
The color scheme is not bad for a commercial airline, but for a presidential aircraft it would seem more appropriate to have colors reflecting the national colors like the white and blue currently in use. Red, white, and black, on the other hand were the colors of the Nazi flag 1948 to 1945.
2
Michael Reynolds
@Gustopher:
I couldn’t drive for 22 years, my poor wife had to do all the driving and it was nothing but rust buckets. Cars held together with Bondo. Then, as soon as things were all better, I went straight to the Mercedes dealership. I paid my dues in shitty cars that only started when they felt life it, cars where I could see through the floor. Since then, four Mercs, a Lexus, an Audi, a Volvo and now, a BMW.
As God is my witness I won’t ever be wheelless again.
2
Harry Kirschner
Welcome to the United States of Ferenginar.
4
dazedandconfused
I was going to mention the absurdity of using one of the world’s largest planes to transport one man and maybe a few dozen staffers. Then I wondered what they need all that floor space for. The answer came: “For the ballroom, you dolt!”
Nevermind…
2
dazedandconfused
For some reason all this triggered an old memory, the cult of Bhagwan Shree Rashneesh. Why did his followers keep buying their Dear Leader Rolls Royces, eventually amassing a fleet of 94 of the things? Because they knew it made Him happy and His happiness was their happiness.
2
Eusebio
@dazedandconfused:
And his Rolls Royce-buying followers just moved on, for the most part, after the law caught up with the Bhagwan and the cult fell apart.
The reason it’s a 747, which really is too big, is the air force’s insistence on a four engine plane. By the late 80s, when the current model was acquired, the only options were the 747-200*, and maybe a soviet model. the A340 lay a few years in the future, and no way congress would authorize money for a European plane that is a US symbol in addition to transportation.
The previous AF1 had been a 707. I don’t think any passenger models were in production by the 80s, but Boeing did produce airframes based on that model for AWACS radar planes and KC-135 tanker planes. They could have adapted two for use as AF1.
The current planes were delivered sometime during Bush the elder’s term.
*If they’d waited a few years, they could have ordered the more modern 747-400, the one with winglets. Among other things, it required two pilots rather than three.
2
Ken_L
The new colour scheme is very similar to that of Trump’s private jet, which I’ve no doubt this will replace in January 2029 after the Air Force donates it to his “library”, AKA an opaque private operation not subject to any governmental oversight.
Unless a skilled pilot can land the thing on Miami Boulevard and slot it into the site of the proposed Trump Hotel (library) with a handbrake turn, it will have to be stored at an airport which can handle 747s. There will be nothing to stop the Trump family from using it as their private transport, so I bet they will.
