Legally, the U.S. government is in the clear to accept the donation of an aircraft from a foreign government. The precedent was set by Congress in the 1990s, when it authorized the president to accept from any person, foreign government or international organization financial and in-kind contributions related to operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The United States took in more than $50 billion from Germany, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. Current law authorizes the defense secretary to “accept from any person, foreign government, or international organization any contribution of money or real or personal property… for use by the Department of Defense.”....
May 15, 2025
"The scandal here is not Trump’s willingness to accept the gift of a plane, but Boeing’s utter failure to deliver the planes it promised Trump in his first term."
Writes Marc A. Thiessen, in "Yes, Trump can accept an airplane from Qatar. Here’s why he shouldn’t. Just because Donald Trump can take Qatar’s largesse doesn’t mean he should. Qatar is a nasty regime" (WaPo).
Posts
119 comments:
" ... it authorized the president to accept from any person, foreign government or international organization financial and in-kind contributions related to operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm."
They pay. We die.
Where was all this concern about excepting gifts when Hunter Biden was selling “art” and arranging business deals with “the big guy”? Pardons don’t prevent the media from running stories and op-Ed’s as they are now. Except this is a gift to the American people that Trump gets to use.
The real scandal is Boeing, and I think the outrage is that Trump has no problem insulting Boeing this way. It isn’t Qatar, although I agree they are way too friendly to our adversaries. Still, no one complained about Qatar even just after Oct. 7th. I recall F1 having their Qatar Grand Prix the next day while they discussed the problem of a Russian born driver in the race.
The shocking thing about this gift is that Qatar is buying 160 Boeing wide bodies. That's a much bigger "bribe", IMO. The AF1 gift is just a sweetener designed to make the DNC go nuts over trifles.
The other aspect is that the planes Qatar is buying would be better AF1 except for stupid outdated Air Force requirements.
…not that I would convince anyone but a backlog of aircraft orders means these kind of deals happen regularly, just like with trading wine futures or selling your place in line for sneakers or an iPhone or Pappy Van Winkle. One client made seven figures on his place in line for a plane.
It’s interesting to note that the news of the donated plane has apparently lit a fire under Boeing’s ass and now they’re saying they can deliver the new AF1 planes in 2027. That hardly seems like a coincidence.
Qatar has been a key financial supporter of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, transferring more than $1.8 billion to Hamas over the years.
Thiessen may or may not be right about the legality of the arrangement, but his argument that there’s no violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause is unconvincing. He compares Trump’s plane to those donated to Nixon and Reagan, noting that in the cases of the previous presidents the planes wound up in their presidential libraries but were never privately used. Thiessen recognizes that Trump is planning to use the plane himself after leaving the White House, but according to Thiessen’s ipse dixit that doesn’t make the deal “unlawful.” Why not? The prospective private use is exactly what critics are complaining about. This just isn’t a helpful analysis of that key point.
That's it for the "r word." I will delete comments in the future. I'm not having this back and forth with that epithet. Of all the idiocy. Get you own damned blog. I'm not hosting that kind of thing. Note the instructions that have been up for a long time: "Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny." If you aren't doing that: GO AWAY!
"Thiessen recognizes that Trump is planning to use the plane himself"
WHY?
why would ANYONE want such a gas guzzling relic, like a 747?
I'll give you one hour to rewrite any post that you care about to remove the word. Go ahead and post that and delete your earlier post. I will delete all posts in this thread with the word in one hour.
Now do China.
My three airplanes cost $600 $1200 and $1800 respectively, showing the creep of inflation. Nowadays it's a constitutional crisis.
Trump's gift of a plane from Qatar raises serious legal questions, namely: Will he be flying that plane to a private fishing lodge in Alaska? And will there be extra seats available for Justices Alito and Thomas?
Furthermore -- if the executive and judicial are supposed to be co-equal branches of government, then why does Trump get a 747-800 but Clarence Thomas only gets a Winnebago?
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Affords you the opportunity to retard any plans your adversaries might wish to use against you.
There a couple of scandals here:
1. If Trump is planning in using the plane after he leaves office then it is bribe. It was wrong when the Biden’s did it and it is also wrong if Trump does it.
2. The plane itself might be free, but it will cost as much as $1.2 Billion to turn it into Air Force 1. That is ridiculous.
3. The Qataris are bad actors. If their giving lots of $$$ to Universities is a problem this is one as well.
I think Trump supporters are mistaking a legal burden of proof for the actual crime. According to this way of thinking, it’s not murder if they never find the body.
Actually, the real scandal is this is a story. Why did it become so? Easy. Trump was visiting S/A and the gulf states and being Presidential. Signing trade deals, being praised by our allies, and making foreign policy statements.
The last thing the MSM wanted to do was report anything that made Trump look good. So they did "look, squirrel". And came up with this phony "scandal" which anyone with a brain knew was fake in 3 seconds. But it worked. They wasted everyone's time and got Trump on the defensive.
This is the biggest scandal involving an airplane since the release of that Blind Faith album with the topless pubescent girl on the cover!
The other point, is how completely unserious the NYT/Wapo/WSJ are. These are our "elite" newspapers - yet anyone who reads them would get no serious analysis of the trade/defense deals that were signed, the statements made by the Saudis, or Trump's extensive FP speech. They would get a lot of hot air about Gifts and "Trump's corruption".
BTW, isn't funny how we got no moralism about the Saudi prince MBS that supposedly ordered someone killed. Remember back when we were all supposed to be aghast at this amoral Hitler like character, and the Saudis in general? I guess that all went away for some reason.
Thiessen must read the Althouse blog comments because I made that same point days ago.
The way to go is Homeric epithets, like wine-dark sea or strong-ankled Hillary.
"Qatar is a nasty regime""
You don't influence other countries by isolating them and driving them into the arms of China.
Bill oreily put the bad Qatar canard to bed. They were supporting Hamas but no longer. They are currently spending billions to help fight against Iran. But our “elite” newscasters and democrats only spout the last. The democrats even state that Qatar is allowing Hamas bigwigs to reside in Qatar which is also false.
Take the damn plane, sheesh.
"Thiessen must read the Althouse blog comments because I made that same point days ago."
It's a stronger argument if people looking for the answer arrive at the same place independently.
I keep having this memory in Godfather II of ATT giving Batista a gold plated phone. It's cheesy to accept gifts like that when you're president. Comparing it to Hunter Biden's actions as if that justifies it or saying that by comparison it's a lesser offense just isn't a very convincing argument.
1. If Trump is planning in using the plane after he leaves office then it is bribe. It was wrong when the Biden’s did it and it is also wrong if Trump does it.
The bar for a Trump scandal is make believe about what he might do in the future. This is why those who voted for a Trump don’t take the criticism of him seriously. When the Biden crime family was committing their acts, we were told nothing happened. Even when Joe gave the entire family pardons, it was excused because of what Trump might do.
Trump has not even joked about taking the plane with him, because why would he? Qatar is dumping it because it costs too much to operate. Airlines across the globe are dumping 747s because they cost too much to operate. Their value is as transports.
The Air Force wants a 747 because of antiquated reliability requirement for 4 engines. The USSS agrees with the Air Force, plus they want to carry everybody around with the President including the Press. All these things are based on ideas that made sense over 50 years ago but haven’t in the past decade. So yes, it is ridiculous to spend billions to modify any of them, but that’s been a scandal for a long time now.
When Trump wasn’t President, he got around just fine without a 747 and he certainly found ways to communicate constantly.
On Qatar: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/08/politics/qatar-hamas-doha-us-request/index.html
Shall we keep punishing them when they do as we request?
“I keep having this memory in Godfather II of ATT giving Batista a gold plated phone.”
Faulty memory. It was ITT, not ATT.
Leland said..
Shall we keep punishing them when they do as we request?
Exactly. It just shows how unserious the democrat party is now.
Bad timing, Thiessen! Trump was in Qatar yesterday, making deals, drawing them into trade negotiations, because he doesn't adhere to the old neocon "we don't talk to these people they are bad!" bullshit. He explicitly called out the failure of the old "nation building" attempts in his excellent Riyadh speech. He accurately noted those neocons "destroyed more nations than they helped."
Meanwhile, Trump in his unique way is embracing the "attractive former jihadi" the same way he figuratively disarmed Kim in NK. Trump doing things the Trumpian way has worked out better for world peace than any plans of the Neocons, the Democrats, the USAIDers and/or the Uniparty Rinos.
You can partly blame Boeing for making such a hash of the VC-25Bs, but this 'free gift' will cost hundreds of millions to make it useful in its designated role. $500m would not be unrealistic.
Further, it will only be used in its designated -- expensively retrofitted role -- for a few years before it becomes another monument to Trump's vanity, stored in his museum to incompetence.
And, yes, this does seem to be at best a hefty bribe and at worse downright corruption as far as I understand the US Constitution.
(Trump should consider utilizing the 747-800 to ship his illegals around the globe. No costly retrofitting etc)
The bar for a Trump scandal is make believe about what he might do in the future. This is why those who voted for a Trump don’t take the criticism of him seriously.
Gold-plate this Leland gem and hang it in the entryway for all the Leftists to read and weep. We don't care about your make-believe future-casting, especially when you refused to see the infirm POTUS right in front of you.
"...You can partly blame Boeing for making such a hash of the VC-25Bs,..."
I disagree. You can fully blame Boeing for this disgrace, and you can throw in the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for oversight on the $4 billion contract that was let during the Obama administration. Trump corrected course on this farce in his first term and the Biden administration decided to ignore it for 4 years. But Boeing has disgraced itself across its own industry sectors, unassisted, by its embrace of Modern Wokery.
They apparently have decided to put an engineer in charge again, which I believe they had to do in order to survive. Trump accepted the Qatari plane to jack them up, and it has a chance of working. Boeing has realized they're fighting for more than their reputation now.
...but does anybody notice that Trump doesn't hold grudges? What could he be doing with Boeing right now? Not only breach of contract, but their abysmal failure leaving 2 astronauts stranded for 6 months because of that lemon spacecraft? And the 737 Max debacle? Instead of giving Boeing the punishment they deserve, Trump sees an opportunity for American industry and cuts deals for huge Boeing orders. I would bet that behind the scenes, he has also had many conversations with Boeing about their leadership and what needs to happen to change their culture for the better. He wouldn't be staking deals without that. If Joe Biden was leading the charge, Boeing's HR Managers would be convening to discuss medical coverage for sex changes, while Joe dribbles ice cream on his shirt, and the press would be licking it up, maybe even literally.
I don't think anybody outside of the Beltway and NYT newsroom and editorial panel cares. Out biggest military base in the ME is in Qatar, we have huge investments there. At $400M, this doesn't even come close to the tip cultures declared 25% minimum.
Leland: "The bar for a Trump scandal is make believe about what he might do in the future. This is why those who voted for a Trump don’t take the criticism of him seriously. "
Do make note that the "future," scandal post was offered up b GOPe Globalist suckup AMDG, because of course it was.
There is no more natural domestic political alliance, as demonstrated in this thread, than the one between the continuing Romney/America Last crew and the pro-ChiCom New Soviet Democratical crew.
Whatever it takes to undermine the Trump admin to ensure a reurn to GOPe establishment "heaven".
However, as they say, we arent going back.
The way to go is Homeric epithets, like wine-dark sea or strong-ankled Hillary.
I recall “great-souled Patroclus”.
Speaking of which, I think that is an accurate description of Trump. Whatever you think of his policies you must recognize the strength of the man's character. I don’t know how anyone takes the hits he does and still charges into battle again and again. The Democrats have been sending one Hector after another into the fray, but in this version of the story it is Hector who gets smote down.
GRW3: "Our biggest military base in the ME is in Qatar.."
It was hilariously noted just yesterday that Abacus Boy LLR-democratical Rich had no idea the largest US base, and forward base for US Central Command, was in Doha!
LOL
Having Rich post at Althouse blog is like having AOC post here!
Qatar supports Hamas. “Trump’s going to take a $400 million jet from people he would expel from Columbia University.” — Jon Stewart
JAC - if that's such a big concern of your side since (checks watch) about 15 minutes ago, please answer why Columbia was admitting those students in the first place.
I would worry about some future pager/walkie-talkie incident. How thoroughly can they go over the plane?
Now let's do something about that ridiculous "$400 million jet" canard people keep throwing around. That's what it sold for NEW 14 long years ago. Best estimates are $22- to $40ish million on the used jumbo jet market. Did you know that 2 of the 4 Vice-Presidential 747 jets in use now were also acquired used and from foreign owners.
I have not read or heard one argument for NOT accepting the jet that makes any sense at all. If you don't like the deal, please explain why. Saying, "Yuck it's Qatar" is not an explanation.
I would worry about some future pager/walkie-talkie incident. How thoroughly can they go over the plane?
Really? Maybe you should read up on the unclassified version of what remodeling them entails. Every square inch will be examined. Closely. Most of it "X-rayed" and ultrasonic tested too.
Democrats support Hamas... especially on college campuses.
Aggie said... "I would bet that behind the scenes, he has also had many conversations with Boeing about their leadership and what needs to happen to change their culture for the better."
At the risk of straying off topic, let's hope so. Boeing was once such an incredible company to personified the American can do spirit. I for one pray they turn things around. Please fire the bean counters and put engineers back in charge. That's what made the company great to begin with.
Obama is pro-Iran - and he and his administration supported Iran financially. Iran's religious supremacist Ayatollahs - support terror and Hamas.
John Althouse Cohen: "Qatar supports Hamas. “Trump’s going to take a $400 million jet from people he would expel from Columbia University.” — Jon Stewart"
Iran supported and supports Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
Obambi/biden released $150 BILLION to the Mad Mullahs in Tehran, including 1.7 Billion in untraceable, small bill, non-US currency loaded onto pallets which was tailor made for distribution directly into the hands of terrorist operative cells throughout the Middle East and beyond.
John Althouse Cohen supported obambi and biden.
John Althouse Cohen can just take a seat now.
Area Expert Robert Spencer is quoted at AOS:
"In many ways, Trump’s meeting with al-Sharaa is as momentous, and could be more momentous, than his first-term overtures to Kim Jong Un. The two meetings come from the same wellsprings: Trump is attempting to break longstanding logjams and end the status quo that the foreign policy establishment, both inside the U.S. and elsewhere, had come to take for granted. . . So Trump wants to make peace with old foes based on mutual economic interests. He is giving al-Sharaa a chance to demonstrate that he really is no longer a jihadi and wants to build a stable and prosperous Syria. It could happen. The global jihad, although it is ignored everywhere, continues nevertheless. It never goes away. Individuals and states, however, can and do put it aside for considerable periods in order to pursue other interests. . .
". . . Nevertheless, Trump’s attempt to create peace based on common interests and move beyond the present logjam is as welcome as it is audacious. Once again, Trump appears to be way ahead of everyone else, as he was when he established the Abraham Accords even as John Kerry was confidently telling the world that such a thing was impossible."
My my. Just saw the helicopter the Saudis gave Bill Clinton just before he left office, worth $17 million. No one said a peep. He still uses it today. How interesting....
https://x.com/Publius871/status/1923012979869520023
Boeing is certainly an Iconic American company (founded by William Boeing) it has certainly gone to seed. Normally I would say let it die but if we did, there would be no other maker of large passenger aircraft. All the others have gone.
And speaking of iconic airplane builders, Piper Aviation is certainly one of the best known builders of general and business aviation aircraft.
Owned by the govt of Brunei.
John Henry
Better to have money flowing to US - than hamas.
right? No?
but certainly it's all fine and dandy with the left as elite college campuses are hot-beds of anti-Jewish HATRED.
“You can partly blame Boeing for making such a hash of the VC-25Bs, but this 'free gift' will cost hundreds of millions to make it useful in its designated role. $500m would not be unrealistic.”
Not sure of your point there. The USG needs a safe, modern, AF1. Your problem is that it really wasn’t needed by Biden, flying back and forth to Delaware. And armored train, on the. Acela route may have been faster. Not only did he not really use AF1s very much, he couldn’t even get up or down the regular stairs to/from the planes. In his later Presidency, they had to use the auxiliary stairs for him. But Biden was the anomaly - it had been over a century (Wilson) since we had had a mentally incompetent President, and are unlikely to see another one anytime soon.
“Further, it will only be used in its designated -- expensively retrofitted role -- for a few years before it becomes another monument to Trump's vanity, stored in his museum to incompetence.”
That’s the reason that Trump needs a modern, safe, Presidential plane (or planes). He travels. A lot. In the US, the President is both Head of Government and Head of State. And Trump sees the latter as part of his job. Biden only saw picking his ice cream flavor as his job. When the President arrives anywhere in the world, it is a show, displaying the majesty of this country. So, for example, when he travels to the Middle East, all of the rulers there are honored, because he has blessed them with his presence, as the head of the most powerful country in the world. And, as a result, he gets deals done that no one else could have done.
So, yes, I can see why you don’t want the President of the US to have a safe, modern, plane in order to impress the rest of the world with our might and power. You want him to fail. Everything you post pretty much says that. But Trump won the election, fair and square (with a significant legal team making sure that the election was relatively fair this time). He’s the one with the mandate, not you, not Chuck Schumer, not Nancy Pelosi, AOC, etc.
>Ann Althouse said...
That's it for the "r word." I will delete comments in the future.<
What is the "r word?" Can you give us a hint so we don't run afoul of your edict? There are a number of possibilities. Perhaps tell us in pig Latin or something.
I disagree. You can fully blame Boeing for this disgrace, and you can throw in the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for oversight on the $4 billion contract that was let during the Obama administration.
@Aggie, there’s a “yes” to this but also a “no.” The contract was let in July 2018 and in between then and now we had the pandemic and the lockdowns, and Boeing says that a key supplier has gone bankrupt. And some dingbat named Buttigieg thought that supply chain disruption issues were just fine and didn’t any federal efforts to address them.
IANAL but it seems to me that these constitute a case for exercising any Force Majeure clauses Boeing thought to include in the contract regarding delivery date.
However this contract should be a warning about taking on FFP contracts over a several year time frame. The contract was let when inflation was low and Boeing’s cost of money calculations were unlikely to have taken Bidenomics into account.
Before the Qatari jet Boeing had been proposing a delivery date circa 2035!. Now Boeing is talking 2027, still three years late. But one of the things they’re proposing in order to get to the new date is that they be allowed to use workers who don’t have security clearances. And that scares the crap out of me, as it should scare Trump himself.
Kakistocracy said...
Further, it will only be used in its designated -- expensively retrofitted role -- for a few years before it becomes another monument to Trump's vanity, stored in his museum to incompetence
So Boeing has slated to finish in 2035. Anyone believing they will now hit a schedule is naive. So pin this somewhere so you can come back and revel in how wrong you are about well almost everything.
Qatar is a jihadist regime. Trump ought not to appear beholden to them.
Please fire the bean counters and put engineers back in charge.
Or at least use bean counters who grasp that making aircraft that fall out of the sky — much less deliberately nose-diving themselves out of the sky — is a serious hit to the bottom line.
"My my. Just saw the helicopter the Saudis gave Bill Clinton just before he left office, worth $17 million. No one said a peep. He still uses it today."
Absolutely a valid point, and the reason so many people are cynical about politics and how it is reported. Hence, Trump.
“When Trump wasn’t President, he got around just fine without a 747 and he certainly found ways to communicate constantly.”
When he wasn’t President, he was representing just himself, and not the country. Moreover, communicating as a private individual is far different than communicating as President.
I am reminded of 9/11/2001. President GWBush was aloft at the time, in AF1. It was kept flying through most of the immediate crisis. Meanwhile VP Cheney was evacuated to the basement bunker below the WH. What I didn’t know until last week was that that bunker didn’t have full communications with esp the military. There were 7 signals officers left in the Situation Room for that reason. (I learned this from one of them, who had been there that day). They were put on a “Dead” list, sent to the CIA, JIC there was nothing left of the WH. Which might have happened if the passengers hadn’t retaken that UAL flight that crashed in PA. It’s called “Continuity of Government”. And AF1s are a critical piece of that. If they had taken out the WH that day, our government would have continued with the President having full, securely encrypted, communications with our military, CIA, NSA, satellites, etc.
The other interesting thing about that day, with that guy, was that he was the one who told the Situation Room in the Pentagon that they had been hit. When they watched the first plane hit the WTC, it could have been an accident. Everyone was on edge then. The second one said that we were at war. And that’s when everyone else at the WH was either sent out, or to the bunker. In any case, he gets a panicked call from another signals officer that he had been on the freeway, a plane had just flown over him, and hit the Pentagon. So, he immediately called his counterpart there and asked him. Nope! Nothing. Then he heard the sirens, over the phone, which had never been used, in the previous 60 years, for anything except for tests, fire up in the background.
Additional thoughts. First of all, the normal lifespan of a 747 in commercial service is 25-30 years. The present USAF VC-25 aircraft (Air Force One) entered service in 1986, so they’re coming up on 40. Of course a VC-25 doesn’t fly nearly as often as a plane in commercial service, but still, air frames have a finite lifespan and a sensible person should respect that.
My second thought is that the four engine requirement should have been waived. Air Force One should showcase the best of American technology, so it should at least use an aircraft that is still being made — Boeing stopped making new 747s at the end of 2021.
Mike(MJB Wolf) writes: “Just saw the helicopter the Saudis gave Bill Clinton just before he left office, worth $17 million. No one said a peep. He still uses it today. How interesting....”
Whether it’s Bill Clinton, using taxpayer money to pay for letters back to children who wrote to him about his cat Socks or Donald Trump accepting a $400 million bribe from Qatar in the form of a fancy airplane, both presidents were involved in some questionable expenditures. 🤣
Some other things that AF1 has, that Trump’s private widebody doesn’t. They have jamming and flare ejection for defense against hostile missiles. Also EMP hardening. And important to the Continuity of Government requirement, they have midair refueling capabilities, so that they can stay aloft indefinitely, should the need arise (as it might have on 9/11). Try that with Trump’s private 757.
@Ice Nine -- the word was robetobard (if you speak ob). And it was not used in its verb form, but as an epithet directed at other commenters.
“So Boeing has slated to finish in 2035. Anyone believing they will now hit a schedule is naive. So pin this somewhere so you can come back and revel in how wrong you are about well almost everything”
Let’s see how Harris does with refitting this 747 as an AF1. If they can come close to their promised completion date, I expect that they may get Boeing’s contract to retrofit the two 747s as AF1s.
… Every square inch will be examined. Closely. Most of it "X-rayed" and ultrasonic tested too.
Once upon a time I would have had faith in that. After two failed assassination attempts and Boeings failure to deliver I do not have faith that they wouldn’t miss something. Maybe if Musk goes over any coding/software in the operation of the plane ;)
Iman said...
“I keep having this memory in Godfather II of ATT giving Batista a gold plated phone.”
Faulty memory. It was ITT, not ATT.
In real life, the US ambassador to Cuba gave a golden telephone to Batista in 1957.
In the Godfather II movie, the fictionalized UTT (United Telephone & Telegraph) gave the golden phone to Batista.
hombre: "Qatar is a jihadist regime. Trump ought not to appear beholden to them."
You mean like how Trump made himself "appear beholden to" the russkis via collusion? Sarc/
The last decade has shown there is absolutely nothing, nothing at all, that will stop the New Soviet Democraticals from pretending one hoaxed up story about Trump after another. To pretend otherwise is just about as tedious and dumb as it gets.
DEIversity is a double-edged scalpel.
I wonder who pays for the upkeep and maintenance on the Clinton's Saudi-gifted helicopter that the Clinton's utilize for their personal business use, and were these maintenance fees the reason why the Clinton's used up to $8Million from the Haitian children funds for Chelsea's wedding.
When the Clinton's and the dems weren't facilitating child sex trafficking that is.
reader @ 10:55
It takes anywhere from six to ten hours to completely strip the interior of a 747. After that it looks exactly like you think it would. An empty tin can with wires. The mechanics and technicians will go through every inch of it. Every part of that plane is accessible. If there is anything there that isn't supposed to be there they'll find it.
Here's how to stifle press criticism and obviate the need for costly retrofitting: Keep AF1 in service and use the donated plane to ferry the press. They can park this enormous plane right next to AF1, and this will show how much we in America value our press. Outfit the plane with the kind of luxury accommodations that first class passengers can only dream of. Include sloe eye flight attendants. That's shut the press up, and Trump can then pursue his policies of world peace.
Exit Question: If Trump had ridden on the Saudi-gifted, emoluments clause violating, Clinton family personal helicopter during his (Trump's) recent visit, would Trump be impeached and have Clinton called as a witness against him?
Rusty: "reader @ 10:55
It takes anywhere from six to ten hours to completely strip the interior of a 747. After that it looks exactly like you think it would. An empty tin can with wires. The mechanics and technicians will go through every inch of it. Every part of that plane is accessible. If there is anything there that isn't supposed to be there they'll find it."
Precisely.
It's really amusing reading what some of these idiots are saying on Althouse blog, exposing their extraordinary ignorance of even the most basic and rudimentary elements of an aircraft teardown and inspection.
William: " That's shut the press up, and Trump can then pursue his policies of world peace."
Dream on homey.
I had a third thought, but it was not directly related to the other two so I’m putting it in a separate comment.
Maybe it’s because I had a long, fulfilling career designing and leading the development of computer systems that were uncomfortably close to an ever-evolving bleeding edge, but I deeply admire people who think outside the box. And Trump is high up on that list.
Yes, Qatar has — historically — been playing footsie with both the US and jihadis, but perhaps — perhaps! — they recognize that jihad against the modern world is doomed. Perhaps the offer of the obsolete, ornate, jet to the DoD (which by law is allowed to accept the donation of equipment from any foreign source) to be made over into a VC-25 is the first step in an elaborate Arab ritual to signal that Qatar is ready to deal. Good for Trump and Rubio that they picked up on it.
The infantile notion that Qatar has been and therefore always must be a US enemy needs to be tossed into a trash can along with the rest of the neocon shibboleths.
Clinton helo story appears to be fake.
Big Mike: "The infantile notion that Qatar has been and therefore always must be a US enemy needs to be tossed into a trash can along with the rest of the neocon shibboleths."
Bears repeating.
Readering: "Clinton helo story appears to be fake."
Are you saying the Clinton story is precisely the same as the Trump 747 bribery hoax?
Community Notes for the win again. If satire wasn't dead it would be easier to tell attempts at it from real life.
as Bruce Hayden said..
" the President having full, securely encrypted, communications with our military, CIA, NSA, satellites, etc. "
and THAT (along with mid-air refueling) is what makes AF1 different from other jets.
Qatar plays both side of the game, they hosted centcom at al udaid, and they funded syrian libyan salafi rebels, this was back a dozen years ago, in concert with Turkey,
I can imagine Clarence Thomas objecting to Qatar bribing Trump with a half a billion dollar airplane. They should give him a half a billion dollar RV instead.
The helicopter story apparently came from a satire website. The Clinton Foundation did accept plenty of money from foreign countries after Bill left office. The Qatar jet, though, is a gift to the country, not to Trump.
Boeing acquired its competitor McDonnell Douglas during the Clinton years and became something close to a monopoly. That was their downfall. They got lazy and sloppy.
There's a warning for the future: if high tariffs actually go through, it would encourage monopolies. It's a warning from the past as well: one reason we lowered tariffs was because the protective tariff was "the mother of trusts."
⬆️ But Drago claimed it as fact 🤣🥃
Darn that ExTwitter 😂
Real men don't pretend to be infallible. The very reason I gave the link to my source was because I can't vouch for the info independently. And we don't run with unsubstantiated rumors year after year like Trump's haters do. Fine people indeed.
Speaking of helicopters...
Drago claimed it as fact
This is blatant lie and attempt to impugn Drago, who simply posed a set of questions based on the helicopter story. He did not confirm or validate the story at all. Far as I can see he made NO CLAIM about it at all. He does make claims about other commenters, but those claims I have found reliably true.
'Legally [Trump] is in the clear...'
'...but it should be illegal because Trump.'
🚨OT
Donald Trump says no deal on Ukraine until he meets Vladimir Putin ~ FT
“Look, nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together, OK?” ~ Donald Trump
Um, that wasn’t his tune earlier on in the week. Yes, I know today is Thursday and last Sunday seems like a millennium ago, but okay sure, whatever. 😂
Could you imagine the reverse where Putin went to Istanbul and Zelensky never turned up?
We would have 40 comments from the pro-Kremlin poodle club shouting that Zelensky is a warmonger who doesn’t want peace and therefore he must fear Putin.
I know I'm late to the party on this, but my first thought is that the sole pilot/crew will be sweating profusely as they fly back to the USA.
Also, it'll be hilarious if all they find a solitary apple air tag tucked between two seats.
Abacus Boy LLR-democratical Rich: "⬆️ But Drago claimed it as fact
Darn that ExTwitter "
LOL
Rich has no where else to go, does he?
Fun!
LLR-democratical Rich: "We would have 40 comments from the pro-Kremlin poodle club...."
You can tell our New Soviet Democraticals go thru a version of withdrawal symptoms, like drug addicts, when too many years have passed since the last time the democrats green-lit the russkis taking a part of another nation or key commodity interests.
Recall how obambi handed the Crimea to Putin, happily so in fact, followed by the obambi/clinton/mueller handed US uranium rights to Putin oligarch pals just for another $20M or $30M to the Clinton library slush fund, followed by biden's auto-pen giving Putin Eastern Ukraine.
Sad really, seeing Rich get strung out like that....
like miss butarina, the widow of the mayor of moscow, who gifted hunter 300 m, the skulkovo tech lab, where the code that allegedly hacked the DNC, actually it was a false audit trail from Georgia Tech, but this was another Clinton foundation project,
Speaking of reporting something false as fact, who can forget Abacus Boy LLR-democratical Rich declaring flatly, without equivocation or caveat, in late 2022, that every single Musk company was a fake company, a fraud, a grift and that each one would shortly collapse when it was discovered.
Never mind that even by then, Tesla's numbers and growth was incredible, SpaceX was leading the globe, formerly twitter then X was already the single most important communication platform in the world, neuralink was already well on its way in testing to its first implant, the Boring company had 4 years previously completed its first LA test tunnel, etc.
Despite all that, LLR-democratical Rich, self-styled economic and financial whiz kid (literally), who had "been in the room" when big, BIG business decisions had been made (LOL, I almost couldn't complete writing that part of the sentence without doubling over in laughter!) called all of that literally fake.
As if you can fake rocket launches and automated cars moving about in public and sales numbers, etc.
Anyone heard from Rich, the Harry Sisson of Althouse blog on any of these "facts" he's delivered over the years? We should be do for an update by now, don't you think?
Sorry, Rocco… The "Golden Telephone" actually exists, and this scene was based on true events. The phone was gifted in 1958 to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista by an American ambassador on behalf of the ITT corporation, a communications company that was given the contract to run the Cuban phone system. It is currently on display in the Cuban National Museum, (which by the way, is housed in Batista's old presidential palace building in Havana).
Why The Qataris Are Happy To Dump Their 747 On Trump~ Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2025/05/14/qatar-747-trump/
Forbes: “The Qataris have been trying to get rid of that ostentatious luxury jet for five years, but no one would buy it. It costs too much to fly, costs more to maintain, and needs too big a landing strip. They had another one they unloaded on Turkey.”
Delicious — very subtle.
Trump, from 'the bygone era': "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.”
I love the implicit mocking of Trump in the article where they said it's no longer cool for national leaders to fly in big jets.
I'm never delighted when our government has dealings with countries that sponsor and host terrorists, countries such as Cuba and Iran, Obama's special pals. But tiny Qatar plays an odd middleman role in the Middle East. In the 90s, even Israel engaged them to do what Trump is basically doing now. Qatar, dwarfed by Saudi Arabia, is particularly open to diplomatic overtures. As someone else said here, the media is only reporting the carrots, not the sticks. It would be nice if they would do their jobs instead.
Big Mike: "The infantile notion that Qatar has been and therefore always must be a US enemy needs to be tossed into a trash can along with the rest of the neocon shibboleths."
Bears repeating.
No permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.
Me, I'm sick up to the gills with our "special relationship" with the UK, my ancestral homeland. Perfidious Albion has been meddling in our politics about a hundred times more than the Russians and Chinese put together, and always on the side of left-wing managerialism and globalism.
I'd support withdrawing all our troops from Britain, recalling our ambassador from the Court of St. James, and treating them as a hostile nation. Maybe a covert program to fan the flames of right wing nationalism and overthrow the Labour scum.
Its fun watching LLR-democratical Rich trying out new talking points as all the previous ones collapse.
The best Rich self-owns are when he contradicts his previous comments (this happens very frequently) almost as if he has a slightly larger Magic 8-ball with mix-and-match narratives that meander to and fro and under and above in the forlorn hope that, at some point, at SOME point, a possibility equivalent out of this Infinite Monkey's scenario will present itself as a somewhat plausible hoax that might be bandied bout for a short period of time before the inevitable debunking and subsequent Richie "run away! run away!" Sir Robin narrative act reappears.
I'm with Hassayamper. We should demand to trade Prince Harry's freedom from Megan Markle for Tommy Robinson's freedom, for starters, and bring Laurence Fox stateside to film (with full creative control) the presumably cancel-cultured next installation of the Inspector Morse series: Inspector Hathaway. That will knot PBS's knickers. And no more military protection until they eliminate their fascist "hate speech" laws and replace their police force top to bottom with people who do not protect Islamic pimps while arresting tweeting grandmas.
a modest proposal, but well earned,
Secure communications do not require a 747 nor billions of dollars to implement for 2 aircraft. Also chaff and flare dispensers are easy enough to install on aircraft. The only item mentioned by Bruce that’s not installed on an El Al aircraft is EMP protection.
Biden’s former NSA Jake Sullivan says he didn’t know about Biden’s mental decline: “What happened in that debate was a shock to me.”
“They're all so deeply full of shit and I'm glad they had their asses handed to them.”
—— Mary Katherine Ham
https://instapundit.com/719858/
So many aircraft engineers here -- it's odd, a bit like a JBS convention. Hope that's not offensive.
Bruce Hayden said...
“I am reminded of 9/11/2001. President GWBush was aloft at the time, in AF1."
I recall a famous photo of the moment President Bush was notified. He was in an elementary school classroom, reading to kids. Is this not true?
I just read that the offer of the 747 was started a few years ago, during the Biden administration, and the deal was only finalized now.
There's a problem that Qatari leaders have that's invisible to most. It's the same problem Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the shahs of Iran, the kings of Saudi Arabia, and the various emirs of the other Gulf States has.
Muslims. The leaders of all those states are muslim in the same way that King Charles is Anglican, or the heads of state of any European country is Christian- nominally so. But for the most part, not really. They all keep as tight a rein as they can on religious leaders within their territories. And, by the way- all muslim religious leaders are self proclaimed, and then recognized by others. There are no seminaries, no formal invocations, no religious body recognizing one's claim as a religious leader in islam like there is in Christianity. And Zoroastrianism.
Losing control of the message sent out by religious leaders in any predominately muslim country leads to an islamic revolution- and a return to the 14th or 15th century, or whatever century you want to ascribe to their practices.
The Saudi royal family, and the families of the various Emirates, are well known for their boisterous un-islamic behavior when they're away from sharialand. SInce they also control the news in their respective lands- none of that reported behavior gets back to the masses.
Allowing democracy to take hold anywhere in sharialand will lead to an islamic dictatorial government. The people will vote it in.
I don't envy the leaders. They all walk a tightrope, and falling off will mean their death and the deaths of their family.
I also don't admire. And I trust them to do only what is in the best interests of their family- since all the nations in that area are still clan run societies.
FIRE IN THE HOLE? I don't know but I do like that " get your own dam blog" if you do it again. That's laying down the law. I can picture who this message was addressed to, the usual suspects that live here they know who they are...play nice kids
The folks up in here who always present themselves as know it alls and it seems they really dont and make shit up! Mere hours to take it apart and voila there you are! Here's just scratching the surface. The cost of converting the Qatari-owned Boeing 747 into Air Force One could range from hundreds of millions to over $1 billion. The process would involve installing top-secret security systems, advanced communications equipment, and defensive capabilities, which could take several months to two years. Experts suggest that taxpayers would likely foot the bill, and the project might not be completed before the end of Trump's term in 2029.
The aircraft itself is estimated to be worth between $250 million and $400 million, but the cost of overhauling it could exceed three times its value. Some officials have raised concerns about espionage risks and counterintelligence vulnerabilities associated with accepting the jet.
Converting the Qatari Boeing 747 into Air Force One would require extensive security modifications to meet the rigorous standards of a U.S. presidential aircraft. Here are some of the key upgrades needed:
Secure Communications: The aircraft must be equipped with classified communication systems that allow the president to securely run the country from the air, even in crisis situations.Defensive Capabilities: Air Force One typically includes anti-missile defenses and countermeasure systems to protect against surface-to-air and air-to-air missile threats.
Cybersecurity Enhancements: The plane must be hardened against cyberattacks, ensuring that all onboard systems remain operational and secure.
Counterintelligence Measures: Experts warn that accepting a foreign aircraft could pose espionage risks, requiring thorough bug sweeps and classified system replacements.
Military-Grade Power Systems: The aircraft must be able to withstand electromagnetic pulses from nuclear blasts, ensuring continued functionality in extreme conditions.
Medical Facility: Air Force One is typically equipped with a fully functional medical suite, including an operating room, to handle emergencies.
Some officials argue that Trump’s plan to use the Qatari jet as an interim Air Force One could introduce security vulnerabilities, as the administration may forgo some of these modifications due to time constraints. Plus the 3.9 billion already in the mix to add more boeings to the AIR FORCE ONE fleet and guess whose paying...the folks who are the knowers of all (in their dreams) take their info with a grain of salt ,just babble do the research get real facts no alternative ones the trumpers love to use..This aint gonna happen and trump will fold again like with China and UK and the rest and you wont hear anymore from him about it.....
Joe Bar, you are correct.
There isn't a lot of personal fact checking done by people who post here. It is worth factoring in when the usual blowhards start yakking.
"What could he be doing with Boeing right now? "
Well they picked Boeing to build the 6th generation fighter jet....
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 2 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith.