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Not many Americans thought it was a good idea for President Trump to accept a Boeing 747 from the Qatari royal family to become a short-lived Air Force One. When Yahoo News/YouGov surveyed U.S. adults in late May, only 32 percent approved of the decision to accept and use the jet, and 51 percent disapproved; just 25 percent said they did not think the jet was a bribe, while 54 percent said they thought the government of Qatar was trying to bribe the president.
Trump’s first-term vice president, Mike Pence, called it a “bad idea.” Not even Laura Loomer, about as loyal a Trump supporter as you can find, thought it was a good idea; she called the decision to accept it a “stain” on the administration. Senate Republicans expressed misgivings, but hung together to block an effort by Senate Democrats to prevent funding for converting the jet to Air Force One specifications.
But President Trump wanted it and charged ahead, despite the terrible optics and real concerns about whether a donated jet — from a less than savory regime, no less — could be quickly and safely upgraded to the considerable security needs of a traveling American president.
The president and U.S. Air Force assured the public, emphatically, that the Qatari plane would be completely safe.
“The safety and security of the commander in chief is our highest priority,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in a statement June 19. “From the beginning, we meticulously evaluated every requirement to accelerate delivery while maintaining the high standards expected of the presidential mission. This effort proves that the U.S. Air Force can move fast without sacrificing quality, security, or reliability.”
But a little further down in that statement, the Air Force added, “No risk was taken in security, safety or mission communications, but the collective team made trades on some of the less commonly used mission sets that Boeing must deliver to support the next 40 years.”
Now we have some sense of those “trades.” Earlier this month, Trump traveled to Ankara, Turkey, for the NATO summit on the new Air Force One but switched back to one of the two old planes for the return trip. The move was a security precaution related to the resumption of hostilities with Iran. The New York Times reported that the new plane “lacks the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities, according to multiple officials who have been briefed on how the jet was retrofitted.” The administration then proceeded to subpoena the reporters on that story. A Justice Department spokeswoman said that “reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.”
On Sunday, Trump was asked why he was flying in the Qatari jet again. He responded, “It has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re gonna send it to have it be, uh, maxed out. So, they’re gonna be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out. It’ll take about a month.”
So, the president accepted a $400 million jet from a foreign government, to be used for just a few years before being retired to Trump’s presidential library, and rushed it into service without the advanced antimissile capabilities. This has been a fiasco from the very beginning, and an entirely predictable one.
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