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Maddow Blog-Among the problems with Trump's 'free' luxury jet from Qatar: It's not actually free
Even if the jet from Qatar were free, this arrangement would still be a legal and ethical mess. But the free plane also wouldn’t be free.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevebenen.com/post/3lp526ygtzk2j
Even if the luxury jet from Qatar were free, this "gift" would still be a legal and ethical mess. But there's a related problem:
The free plane would cost American taxpayers a fortune.
The free plane would cost American taxpayers a fortune.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/problems-trumps-free-luxury-jet-qatar-s-not-actually-free-rcna206706
Even if the luxury jet were free, this arrangement would still be a legal, ethical and political mess. But there’s a related problem: The “free” plane wouldn’t be free. NBC News reported:
Politico had a related report that noted it “could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars” to retrofit Qatar’s “gift” into a makeshift Air Force One.
“This isn’t really a gift,” said Rep. Joe Courtney told Politico. The Connecticut Democrat, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and helps oversee its panel on executive airlift, added, “You’d basically have to tear the plane down to the studs and rebuild it to meet all the survivability, security and communications requirements of Air Force One. It’s a massive undertaking — and an unfunded one at that.”
In other words, when Trump says the jet from Qatar would be “FREE OF CHARGE,” it’s true that it would be free for him — the president wouldn’t have to reach for his own wallet — but it wouldn’t be free to us, the American taxpayers.....
Soon after Schumer’s comments, Senate Democrats tried to advance a resolution that condemned “any acceptance of a Presidential aircraft, or any other substantial gift, from a foreign government as a grave national security threat to the Office of the President” and demanded that such a gift could only be accepted with the approval of Congress.
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama blocked the measure.
Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who introduced the resolution, said, “I remain flabbergasted that this thing is not going to pass. I remain completely aghast. This is the most blatant, obvious, ridiculous, gross corruption that I’ve ever seen in my entire life — by dollar amount, by symbolism, by violating constitutional and statutory law.”
Converting a Qatari-owned 747 jet into a new Air Force One for President Donald Trump would involve installing multiple top-secret systems, cost over $1 billion and take years to complete, three aviation experts told NBC News. They said that accepting the 13-year-old jet would likely cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars over time, noting that refurbishing the commercial plane would exceed its current value of $400 million.
Politico had a related report that noted it “could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars” to retrofit Qatar’s “gift” into a makeshift Air Force One.
“This isn’t really a gift,” said Rep. Joe Courtney told Politico. The Connecticut Democrat, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and helps oversee its panel on executive airlift, added, “You’d basically have to tear the plane down to the studs and rebuild it to meet all the survivability, security and communications requirements of Air Force One. It’s a massive undertaking — and an unfunded one at that.”
In other words, when Trump says the jet from Qatar would be “FREE OF CHARGE,” it’s true that it would be free for him — the president wouldn’t have to reach for his own wallet — but it wouldn’t be free to us, the American taxpayers.....
Soon after Schumer’s comments, Senate Democrats tried to advance a resolution that condemned “any acceptance of a Presidential aircraft, or any other substantial gift, from a foreign government as a grave national security threat to the Office of the President” and demanded that such a gift could only be accepted with the approval of Congress.
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama blocked the measure.
Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who introduced the resolution, said, “I remain flabbergasted that this thing is not going to pass. I remain completely aghast. This is the most blatant, obvious, ridiculous, gross corruption that I’ve ever seen in my entire life — by dollar amount, by symbolism, by violating constitutional and statutory law.”
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