Never a straight answer

 

Is there a contract, or isn't there?  He seems to be saying there isn't one.  Could he be lying?

Qatar Force One

A luxury jetliner gifted by Qatar is currently sitting on a tarmac at an airport in San Antonio waiting for a specialized overhaul to become the next Air Force One.

[...]

Democratic lawmakers and independent watchdogs say the gift violates the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, which bans government officials from taking gifts from foreign countries.

  NPR

They say that because it does. Can NPR not say that?

Trump says it would be a gift to the DOD and that he would not use it after leaving office, when it would be kept at his presidential library.

Did he say that he wouldn't use it? If he did, he was lying.

But experts warn that no matter how luxurious the plane is, it would take years to rework it to meet the current standards set for Air Force One.

[...]

"Anybody who knows anything about these planes and the history of Air Force One knows that these are difficult to construct, and the technology is always improving. They don't just show up at your airport. They have to be built," he says.

Two new Boeing 747-8 planes are currently being specially customized to become the next generation of Air Force One — a project that has been in the works for years and subject to delays. The new Boeing planes were supposed to be ready by last year but now aren't expected for several more years.

[...]

Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory and an aviation analyst, told NPR's Morning Edition that some of the responsibility for the delays lies with "poor execution" by Boeing. "But some of that is just due to the huge amount of requirements and work needed to take a commercial jet and wire it up for war."

He said Trump's plan that the gifted plane could be ready soon was a "fantasy."

[...]

"It's a mobile White House," says Doug Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. "All the functions of the president have to be executed in it, no matter what circumstances, including warfare."

Air Force One planes feature an "incredibly robust command and control suite," he says, and have defenses against a range of threats, from surface-to-air missiles to a nuclear blast.

[...]

Beyond that, Birkey says, is the unique layout of the plane itself, with a very specific seating and office configuration to keep the president as safe as possible and able to continue the job in the air.

Are we sure that was "accidentally" published?

Also, I might want to put Security nearer the center of the plane.  But what do I know?

"In that middle level is everything, as I say, for the president's convenience, to help him do his job," says Walsh, including a large presidential suite with office space able to do live video and audio broadcast, a medical area equipped for basic surgery, a conference room, two galleys able to prepare up to 100 meals at once, several areas for Secret Service agents, and seating in the very back for the media.

The plan to replace the current Air Force One fleet has been long in the works, with Boeing winning the contract back in 2016 under then-President Obama. Trump finalized a deal in his first term in 2018.

The two current planes have been in use since 1990, and their age is starting to show — one of the reasons Trump has been eager to put pressure on Boeing to finish the new generation of planes. But experts like Birkey say it's not just about aesthetics.

Don't speak for Trump on that.

The new generation will be a newer Boeing model, the 747-8, which is also the same model of the gift plane from Qatar. Compared to the 747-200, the 747-8 emits around 16 less tons of carbon per trip, can travel about 1,000 nautical miles further in range, and is the fastest commercial jet in the world, according to Boeing. It's also wider and longer than the current model in use.

Room for family and special guests!

Much of the details of the planes haven't been made public, but there are planned upgrades to the electrical and communications systems, military and combat-ready electronics, more self-defense systems, and autonomous systems for baggage loading and entering and exiting the plane, according to documents from the Department of Defense.

[...]

The gifted 747-8 plane from Qatar is certainly opulent, with big leather seats and wood inlay, multiple lounges, a bedroom suite and private office, according to marketing materials saved on the Internet Archive. The Qatari government purchased the plane in 2012, and had been trying to sell it for several years without success.

[...]

Birkey says, in terms of luxury, the plane from Qatar probably looks and feels better than the current or planned Air Force One planes.

[...]

But the specs say nothing about security or defense systems on board — beyond an anti-intrusion system for when the aircraft is left unattended — and the communications system that's listed is for basic entertainment.

[...]

Both experts and members of Congress have expressed concern that Trump might decide to roll back current security requirements for Air Force One in order to get the plane ready faster.

No doubt about that.

There could also possibly be listening devices or malware on the plane, as it's been sitting in a foreign country for more than a decade.

Not much doubt about that, either.

"Basically, to be absolutely certain that there were no listening devices on board, you'd have to rip this plane down to its constituent elements."

Maybe he can draft enough workmen to speed things up. Or maybe he's perfectly fine with the Arabs, and possibly the Russians, having listening devices on the plane.

Trump has repeatedly stressed that the plane from Qatar was free, but several experts NPR talked to agreed that it will likely end up costing a significant amount of money to outfit it properly to current Air Force One standards.

A U.S. official who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the matter told NPR the conversion would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

I saw one estimate at a billion.

Aboulafia says that should concern taxpayers, since the current program to upgrade Air Force One was a fixed contract signed with Boeing — meaning that all the costs of extending the project are being borne by Boeing and its investors.

"Most likely there will be money spent on this jet, probably a lot more than what the jet is worth," he says. "All of this amounts to, you know, frankly, a waste of taxpayer dollars in terms of this additional vanity project."

No doubt about it.

South African president reveals Trump's corruption

On Wednesday, a dangerous joke was told in the Oval Office. The South African president turned to the American president and said: “I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.”

There was a lot packed into this one little aperçu. Nothing has so succinctly summed up the way the rest of the world feels it must now approach America as these 10 words.

I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.

[...]

Earlier that day, the U.S. government had, under President Trump’s directive, finally and officially accepted the free jumbo jet from Qatar that had become the object of so much controversy and intrigue. Now it had also become a punchline.

Mr. Trump, for his part, took it mostly in stride. “I wish you did” have a plane to offer up, he said with a touch of insouciance. “I’d take it. If your country offered the U.S. Air Force a plane, I would take it.”

[...]

[Ramaphosa] did bring a 30-pound book with pictures of South African golf courses. (“I brought you a really fantastic golf book.”) He also brought along a billionaire South African businessman and a few golfers as guests, to appeal to Mr. Trump’s sensibilities.

[...]

There are many ways to cultivate favor with this billionaire president.

One could always purchase a membership to one of Mr. Trump’s private clubs. The cost to join has never been higher. The initiation fee for Mar-a-Lago is $1 million, double what it was when Mr. Trump was last in office, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. Republican officials now hold more events at Mr. Trump’s clubs than ever before.

  NYT

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?

Mega grift

[Trump] has suggested the [Qatari gift] plane would [...] serve as a museum piece, like the decommissioned former Air Force One displayed at President Ronald Reagan’s library facility.

That is a curious claim. Will a so-called “flying palace” that US taxpayers may pay more than $1 billion to upgrade really just be parked at a to-be-determined site in Florida after just a few years of use?

  Mother Jones

Ooh. Ooh. I know: NO.

Trump left Qatar Thursday without a public announcement finalizing a deal for the plane.

But Trump’s explanation is part of a trend. The president, or unnamed aides, are regularly attempting to wave off ethical concerns by saying that various huge donations will eventually go to the “library.”

After he's dead?

Trump’s inaugural committee hasn’t said how much remains from the record-shattering $250 million raised via fealty displays from corporate chieftains. But the balance will go to the library, a “person close to the inauguration” told the Wall Street Journal. Proceeds from the million-dollar-a-plate fundraising dinners and $5 million-one-on-one meetings with the president—organized by the pro-Trump MAGA Inc PAC—are “all going to the library,” a “person familiar with the dinners” told Wired.

Then there are Meta (owner of Facebook) and Disney (owner of ABC News), which settled dubious lawsuits Trump had filed against them by pledging $22 million and $15 million, respectively, to Trump’s presidential library foundation.

Will this library be inside Mar-A-Lago? Because, there isn't actually an actual library being planned at this time.

Disney, in its a settlement actually said it would transfer settlement funds “to a presidential foundation and museum” before one existed. The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library was incorporated in Florida a few weeks later, apparently as a way to accept the settlement.

Concepts of a library.

Modern presidential libraries are set up by nonprofit foundations. They often take the form of hagiographic museums run in partnership with the National Archives. Trump’s library foundation has not indicated if it has yet sought IRS recognition as a nonprofit, and it hasn’t publicly announced a board of directors.

It's nothing but a name and a bank account to receive bribes.

Trump’s record with non-profit organizations leads to additional reasons for concern. In 2019, a New York judge ordered his nonprofit Trump Foundation to pay $2 million to an array of charities—and then to dissolve entirely—after finding Trump misused the foundation to further his political and business interests. In 2022, the Trump Organization and Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a suit brought by the DC attorney general charging that the committee illegally misused nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family by “grossly overpaying” Trump companies “for use of event space at the Trump Hotel for certain inaugural events.”

About that big, beautiful flying palace

The royal family of Qatar, owner of one of the largest private jet fleets in the world, has been quietly getting rid of some of its biggest planes. It may have found the perfect taker for one of its Boeing 747 jumbo jets in President Donald Trump.

[...]

But while many have speculated that the Qataris have offered Trump the luxurious plane to curry favor with the famously transactional president, there may be a simpler rationale: they just don’t want it anymore.

The royals have failed to sell the plane, which was put on the market in 2020. [...] Giving it away could save Qatar’s rulers a big chunk of change on maintenance and storage costs.

[...]

Qatar, which has given away another blinged-out 747 and may have mothballed two more, epitomizes the fading demand for these huge, fuel-guzzling, highly personalised airplanes. There aren’t many who want to buy them, and many of the governments and royal families who own them have been trying to ditch them over the past decade.

[...]

[T]he 747 coveted by Trump, which was given the tail number A7-HBJ, the initials of billionaire Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, who served as prime minister of Qatar from 2007 to 2013.

[...]

Unlike the passenger version of the 747-8, which can seat 467 people, the HBJ jet is a flying mansion designed for just 89 passengers, with two bedrooms, entertainment and meeting rooms.

[...]

As of 2019, the VIP version of the 747-8 cost an eye-popping $23,000 an hour to operate.

[...]

“Qatar, like many modern states, is shifting toward leaner, more versatile aircraft, which offer better economics and more discreet presence for official travel,” Linus Bauer, managing director of Dubai-based Bauer Aviation Advisory, told Forbes. Giving the plane to Trump would be “a creative disposal strategy” that marks “a farewell to a bygone model of geopolitical theater in the skies.”

[...]

Beyond poor fuel efficiency, large ostentatious planes are a security risk, notes Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace consultant with Aerodynamic Advisory. “These things are big targets.” And bigger planes can only land on longer runways, limiting their usage. “There are a lot more airports you can get into if you have a narrowbody, and many more still if you have a traditional business jet,” he said.

[...]

The massive, highly customized planes, with idiosyncratic interior decorating, are not easy to sell. “The market is incredibly illiquid for a jet like this,” said Aboulafia.

The poster child is a lavish 747-8 commissioned for Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud before his death in 2011. It was scrapped for parts in 2022 with just 42 hours of flight time.

The active Saudi royal 747 fleet is down to one, with two listed as mothballed in the last three years. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is using smaller aircraft like the Boeing 737 and 787-8.

[...]

Giving the 747-8 to the U.S. would also allow the Qataris to avoid maintenance costs that are only getting higher with the 747 fleet shrinking worldwide and fewer mechanics available who know how to work on them, said John Goglia, a former airline mechanic and member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. The 2020 sales brochure noted that the plane was due for a landing gear overhaul in 2024 and a 12-year check in 2027. A check in which the airplane and engines are taken apart, typically carried out every six to 12 years, can take months to complete and cost millions of dollars. “The numbers are staggering,” said Goglia.

  Forbes

That's what Trump likes. Big numbers.

And it's free!  

All about the image

 

UPDATE 04:17 pm:

Trump 2.0 - Always soak the taxpayers

 

Raskin is trying

 

They won't, and he wouldn't even if they did.

Bret Baier isn't giving her what she wants

 

Did Bret quit drinking the Koolaid?

Probably futile, but...

 It might matter. Especially if you're in a red state.

UPDATE 05/13/2025:

When you hear that Pam Bondi says this isn't quid pro quo or a bribe, remember this:  it really is, but it doesn't matter if it isn't.

Trump is gonna be so mad if he doesn't get his plane.

But I expect he will get it.

Jesus Joseph and Mary

 

What are the chances it won't be bugged?

Also, pretty sure there's a law that says big gifts to the president stay with the White House/government.

Oh, yeah, he's above the law.

UPDATE 08:58 am:

Actually, technically, they're wrong, but in the case of Trump, anything he does "in the course of his duties as president" cannot be prosecuted, according to the very corrupt Supreme Court.

Most of that is shitcoin, so take it with the grain of shifting sand it deserves.

Both the White House and DOJ concluded that because the gift is not conditioned on any official act, it does not constitute bribery, the sources said. Bondi's legal analysis also says it does not run afoul of the Constitution's prohibition on foreign gifts because the plane is not being given to an individual, but rather to the United States Air Force and, eventually, to the presidential library foundation, the sources said.

[...]

The plane will then be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation no later than Jan. 1, 2029, and any costs relating to its transfer will be paid for by the U.S. Air Force, the sources told ABC News.

  ABC

Sure. Why not?

That presidential library is going to be getting a lot of gifts.

UPDATE 02:46 pm:

Did you catch that part:  We used to have an ethics czar.

UPDATE 05:23 pm:

Even Laura Loomer: “I love President Trump. I would take a bullet for him. But, I have to call a spade a spade. We cannot accept a $400 million “gift” from jihadists in suits. The Qataris fund the same Iranian proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah who have murdered US Service Members. The same proxies that have worked with the Mexican cartels to get jihadists across our border. This is really going to be such a stain on the admin if this is true. And I say that as someone who would take a bullet for Trump. I’m so disappointed.”

  Meidas Touch

And I thought she knew him. Well, she won't be getting a ride on THAT plane.

Also from Meidas Touch:

CREW: “During the 4 years that Trump serves his 2nd term, real estate developers will be working on, planning, building and opening a total of 20 Trump-branded projects around the globe. In 9 foreign countries, these developers will seek subcontractors, buyers and permits from the govt. The developments that are underway—being planned, constructed, sold and delivered to buyers—will nearly triple the number of Trump properties operating abroad.”

UPDATE 05/13/2025:

I have a suggestion for Senator Paul: hope for something that might actually happen.

And he's going to get away with it.  I wonder how many Republican Congressfolk he lets in on the market scheme.

When you hear that Pam Bondi says this isn't quid pro quo or a bribe, remember this:  it really is, but it doesn't matter if it isn't.