What I see in the floating of this proposal is that to Trumpworld’s mind, (1) the Presidential Airplane is just the world’s fanciest most bestest executive plane, so (2) why TF is Boeing wasting everyone’s time and money taking this long to convert two already existing airframes, and (3) if someone else already has that fanciest most bestest executive jet kitted out and wants to give it to us, why not?
Though, frankly, item (2) up there is something that may be agreed on or at least fairly argued about by sensible people.
So this really sounds more like a play to shake down Boeing while they’re already hurting… “those ten years of work at a loss? *&^%$ deliver already or EAT IT.”
This is one of the craziest and most debased Trumpian moves yet. Not in terms of gravity or impact, but the sheer embarrassment and stupidity cannot be overstated. Most of his other questionable decisions fall under the policy-making umbrella but this is a pure grift, buying of favors, an embarrassment to the US and huge security risk. Even his most fanatical supporters are having a hard time getting behind this shitshow.
When I was a Fed, someone requesting assistance at the front desk of the agency where I worked once brought me a homemade mix tape as a thank you. I got crap even for that.
How is Trump taking an airplane as a personal gift any different than the democrat politician (forget his name) taking gold bars and cash? Didn’t that guy get like a decade in prison?
If Sam Snead can accept a golf gimme, surely Trump would be foolish to refuse such a generous grift. I even heard the plane was built by Epeius, a master carpenter and pugilist from Ancient Troy.
But the president called those who questioned the ethical implications of such a massive gift “world class losers” in a scathing statement.
“So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” Trump penned on Truth Social. “Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!! MAGA.”
Tell me where it’s possible to find “store-bought” tapes of classic Balkan dance music of the 1940s - 1980s in Chicago, and you might have a point. (The gentleman is question was helping his soon-to-be in-laws, who were from Bulgaria. We got to talking while I was explaining how another government agency had screwed up their immigration case, and that was his thank you.)
