So King Donald will be jetting around the world in his billion dollar jet while the peons are requested to tighten their belts and brave the tariff pain. He wants it now, and he doesn't care how much it will cost. “If President Trump insists on converting this plane to a hardened Air Force One before 2029, I worry about the pressures you may be under to cut corners on operational security,” Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, said as Mr. Meink was testifying. "The Pentagon has not given an estimate of when the work on the Qatari plane might be done, even though Mr. Trump and the White House have made clear the president wants it soon, perhaps even by the end of the year." "But maintaining the staff and equipment for three planes is extraordinarily expensive, an estimated $135 million a year for each plane, according to the Pentagon. And it could cost $1 billion or more to retrofit the Qatari plane to get it ready for use as Air Force One, a process that former Air Force officials said could take longer than finishing the job Boeing is already doing to deliver the first two planes." New York Times
If it isn't, then why is Trump keeping the plane when he isn't President any longer? Should be easy to prove that this isn't bribery: don't benefit from the plane and let his successors have it. Regardless, the Qataris are pretty famous for bribing foreign officials. But sure, I guess they gave the President a $400 million "gift" with no expectations...
I didn't "love," either one of them. The closest I ever came to fangirl was Obama. And yes, I did think he was an excellent role model.
If someone I dont know is like "hey buddy" I'm already thinking they want something, and that isnt a $400 million dollar aircraft
Well clearly it isnt to destroy Hamas and their leadership. I think I've made my conclusions clear on other threads.
The lack of any shred of concern from the Trump-right (separate and distinct from actual conservatives) makes more sense once you realize that they have no actual principles. If you made them assess these scenarios in a blind exercise without names or political parties they'd take the opposite stance in every scenario because they are enormous hypocrites who only care about what makes their political opponents mad.
I'll take a stab at it. Based on his history, his head is cluttered with Cronyism, Greed, Flim Flam, Self-Interest, and Greed. I know I said Greed twice, but it bears repeating.
Really a poor attempt to downplay the situation quite honestly. Let's go through some of the points: This is a stopgap until the current Boeing contract can be fulfilled. This fails to explain how we'd be able to retrofit an existing plane faster than building one from the ground up. If that were the case, that's what Boeing would have done in the first place. We'd also have the likely $1 billion+ expense to retrofit it and for what? A very, very temporary stopgap by the time this plane is ready? Trump won't actually use the plane after it's gifted to the library because it will be too expensive to run and maintain. This glosses over a pretty big point that Trump wouldn't be paying for it, the Trump library, aka the taxpayers, would be paying for those expenses. We have ample evidence from Trump's time in office that he pays no regard to the expenses he racks up on the taxpayer dime (more golf trips than any president in history, trip to the super bowl, UFC events, etc.) This video also misses a few enormous points: There is no pressing need to replace the current AF1 and take on this expense. It's still safe and effective, it's just old and not as nice as this luxury plane. Security concerns of accepting this plane from a nation that isn't exactly an ally of ours. What Qatar will expect in return for gifting this.
Criminals like to be bribed. Along with revenge and staying out of jail, being bribed is really our elected felon's only purpose for being in office. The only surprise would be if he didn't unlawfully enrich himself. Edit; I suppose it would also be surprising if anyone in the MAGA Trump-worship community opposed any of his unethical conduct.
It will cost almost $1 billion to make it Air Force 1 ready and 2 years to complete. Are you ok with spending $1 billion so Trump can use a plane for a year? Keep in mind we still will have to pay for another plane that we'll actually keep.