Insane

The two Boeing 747s that serve as Air Force One went into service in the early 1990s, and Boeing's effort to replace those aircraft with brand-new 747-8s has been delayed for years, much to the chagrin of President Donald Trump.

[...]

"The secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations," Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.

"The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the president of the United States," he added.

  ABC

The Pentagon will never get to use that pane.  It will be in the shop longer than trump will be in office getting retrofitted to allow a president to hold office in the air only to give it to Trump when he's a civilian again.  Which, gods please, will eventually happen.

And, perhaps it's just as well, because it will be nearly - if not completely - impossible to be certain all the surveillance/bugging devices built into the plane.

"They're giving us a free jet. I could say no, no, no, don't give us. I want to pay you $1 billion or $400 million or whatever it is or I could say thank you very much," Trump said last week.

HE would not be giving them anything. WE will. And estimates are that it will, in fact, be about $1 billion to make it meet the requirements for a presidential plane. We're paying that.

"The Boeing 747 is being given to the United States Air Force/Department of Defense, NOT TO ME!" Trump added on his social media platform Truth Social on May 13. "It will be used by our Government as a temporary Air Force One, until such time as our new Boeings, which are very late on delivery, arrive."

Just as likely those Boeings will be ready before the Qatari "gift".

Earlier in May, a senior Air Force official said during a congressional hearing that Boeing now thinks it could speed up the delivery of the two replacement 747s in 2027, which would be a year or two ahead of their earlier estimates.

[...]

Darlene Costello, the Air Force's principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, told a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee that the Air Force and Boeing were working with the White House on every single security requirement. She said that included temporarily easing some of the security requirements at the production facility that would allow Boeing mechanics to work on the new planes.

Oh, swell. Make even the new planes, which future presidents (gods please) will use, less secure.

An Air Force spokesperson told ABC News that it will award a contract to modify the Qatari jet to do so, noting that "details related to the contract are classified."

Hmmmm. Who will get that contract?

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed the acceptance of the jet by the Pentagon and attempted to force passage of a bill he introduced on Monday that would prohibit any foreign aircraft from being used as Air Force One Wednesday evening.

Why did he wait until the plane was officially accepted?

"Today marks a dark day in history: the President of the United States of America officially accepted the largest bribe from a foreign government in American history to the tune of a luxury $500 million 747 from Qatar," he said in a statement.

Why is he pulling a Trump and exaggerating the value? Chuck is really useless these days. Time for Chuck to hang up his spurs.

"Until Americans get transparency on this shady deal, which apparently includes a corrupt plot for Donald Trump to keep the plane at his library after leaving office, I'll continue to hold all Department of Justice political nominees."

No matter what kind of deal it is, it's a violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Isn't that enough reason to deny it?