Posted on 05/13/2025 5:15:28 PM PDT by McGruff
The Boeing 747 is being given to the United States Air Force/Department of Defense, NOT TO ME! It is a gift from a Nation, Qatar, that we have successfully defended for many years. 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. Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE from a country that wants to reward us for a job well done. This big savings will be spent, instead, to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our Country. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
May 13, 2025, 7:50 PM
Gotta disagree with The Donald on this one. The United States is supposedly the greatest country on Earth. Yet we cannot supply our president with a suitable aircraft, and must rely on a Muslim nation for one?
This makes us look weak. Pathetic, actually.
Far better that we jury-rig a current USAF jet, and make do until the new presidential planes are ready.
In before they show up.
There ain’t no such thing as a free airplane
Or at least that’s the perception. Perceptions matter.
Qatar never gives something for nothing remember what they did with the universities they gave billions of dollars and what did they get in return college courses teaching young people to love Hamas and hate Israel so no don’t accept it in fact what trump should do is let the senate vote on it yes yes no no that simple that way he washes his hands of it
You’re exactly right. Love it.
And, there’s always a reason for what Pres Trump says and does....that may not/is not apparent, at the time.
Trojan Horse?
> Perceptions matter. <
Bingo. To which I’d add, that plane will be chock full of electronics. I suppose it would be rather easy to hide a small listening device among it all. Or (shudder) perhaps a small bomb.
And the bomb doesn’t even have to be sponsored by the Qatari government. Every last Muslim who worked on that plane is a wanna-be terrorist.
This is a classic case of thanks, but no thanks.
I agree with you. Why would he trust a “free” aircraft from another nation? Nothing is ever free.
Trump should fly in an SR-72. He could get more done faster.
It's a Boeing USA made plan. We have defended Qatar for many years.
Did you read Trump's first two sentences in his Truth Social post?
It's a return gift for all that the USA has done for Qatar. Your concern that we rely on them doesn't make sense.
I really don't think it would be cost effective to convert even a free civilian aircraft into Air Force one, I think the last time they did that was during the Truman or Eisenhower administration.
For one thing they failed to mention what model 747 it is, and how many hours it has on it.
Anything other than the latest 747 (8 intercontinental .??? ) would be too expensive to operate.
And then it has to be modified for in flight refueling for starters.
> It’s a return gift for all that the USA has done for Qatar. <
I will try to accept that at face value. But others here have made a good point. When it comes to politics (local, all the way to international), gifts almost always have strings attached.
> Your concern that we rely on them doesn’t make sense. <
Well, we are relying on them. We are relying on a Muslim nation to provide a suitable aircraft for our president. That’s an embarrassment. There’s no other way to look at it.
Oh, and one more thing. If I were a radical imam, I’d make sure my congregation knew about this. It has great propaganda value.
We need Qatar to bail us out?
We make airplanes here
Ya’ll don’t understand. It’s not that we can’t get a 747, we have 100’s mothballed in the desert.
This is a about Democrat Vendors dragging their feet to get the job done!
Politics!
Qatar is willing to give us a 747-8, Same model as we are presently trying make into the new AF1s.
We presently are using two Russian 747-8s
from desert storage. zero air frame hours
The problem isn’t Boeing, it is the Vendors, that put in all the fancy stuff, needed to make it a “Flying White house”
in the event of War.
They are dragging it out.
From personal experience getting something to be rated “Flight worthy is a real PAIN!”
20 years at Boeing as a flight experimental flight test engineer.
I say go for it
..... Yup ........ It's sure a shame that the United States Government doesn't have any access or any way to do a thorough Electronics and EOD equipment sweep of the 747 from top to bottom to find any nefarious devices that may be present on the gifted plane.
.
This is a mistake. We should purchase the stupid plane if we need it.
Well said. This is a mistake to take it.
Exactly. Foolish to accept a foreign plane to serve as air force one much less one from a muslim country. Just use the existing planes a while longer.
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