Understanding Trump’s Air Force One Political Theater

American Thinker ^ | December 8, 2016 | Thomas Lifson

[Kaslin]

Using the same skill set he employed during the presidential campaign, President-Elect Trump has crafted another public drama around a storyline of his choosing. A highly predictable story arc – a series of subplots that unfold as time passes – is in store for the public.

Trump has done this sort of thing before. And unlike any previous president, he is an incredibly successful impresario/performer in episodic reality television. A substantial fraction of the electorate follows politics at the level of reality television, and Trump knows how to reach them.

His early-morning tweet of December 6 was an attention-grabbing opening scene:

His tweet and subsequent Trump Tower lobby comments about the Air Force One contract ignited a massive amount of coverage and comment. But Act One of the story, as seen by the public Trump is targeting, is that he is criticizing waste in government spending and picking on something that is actually a perk of the presidency. Trump’s use of the word “cancel” in his tweet was his customary dramatic start to a negotiation, letting the other side know that it has to give something in exchange for what it thought it already possessed. While the media nattered over its appropriateness and even legality, the public understood that Trump was calling on Boeing to do better.

The day after his tweet, Trump kept the storyline alive by confirming the commonsense interpretation of what he was up to with the use of the word cancel:

[Grampa Dave]

Yesterday, was my first day to visit Gab.

I was 1.2 million and change on the waiting list. It took a couple of weeks.

It was interesting to say the least.

[Theophilus]

First off, I do understand that the latest & very best tech items have to be included in both planes. The President has to be secure.

The idea of being secure is vanity. The idea of having the latest and very best tech is also vanity because it's a moving target.

Norm Augustine's Law Number XVI: In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.

[semimojo]

I lay these gold-plated requirements squarely at the feet of the White House. To always ensure that rhe executive plane and helicopter both have the same comes capability plus survivability and top-drawer reliability and availability is unimaginably expensive, made more so by very bad business practices and fake urgency over the last decade.

Exactly.

People want to make Boeing the villain but they're only responding to the specs given to them by the Air Force.

Trump's negotiation isn't going to be with Boeing, it's going to be with his own military.

[Mears]

“Yesterday, was my first day to visit Gab.”

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I just went to GAB but could find no sign-up page.

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[Grampa Dave]

Have you been approved or was it your first visit?

[Mears]

First visit———https://gab.ai

Maybe the URL is wrong but it was all that I could find through Google.

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[Grampa Dave]

There should be a icon rectangle to check to join when their home page comes up.

I’m on auto sign in and their home signup page gets bypasssed.

[Mears]

There are 2 rectangles-—”Let me in” and “Sign in”——I tried signing in but of course I couldn’t.

“Let me in” took me to a page with a pic of Roseanne Barr——a few posts——and that was it.

Time for lunch-—I’ll try later.

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