Breaking news: Qatar has asked the U.S. to clarify that the pending transfer of a luxury jetliner President Trump wants for Air Force One was initiated by the administration and that Qatar was not responsible for any future transfers, officials said.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) May 28, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Throwing a nice celebration for important foreign dignitaries and the global news media is one thing; getting tarred as the cronies of some grubby little political figurehead is a different disgrace. Per the Washington Post [gift link]:
Despite claims by the Defense Department to the contrary, legal teams representing the U.S. and Qatari governments have not finalized an agreement for transferring the luxury Boeing 747-8 jetliner that President Donald Trump wants for Air Force One amid outstanding requests by Qatar for Washington to clarify the transaction’s terms, said officials familiar with the matter.
Qatar is insisting that a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Doha specify that the aircraft’s transfer was initiated by the Trump administration and that Qatar is not responsible for any future transfers of the plane’s ownership, these people said.The delay reflects lingering concerns about legal liability stemming from the White House maneuver to transform what was originally a sale between two countries into a “gift” that Trump continues to tout as a major deliverable from his recent trip to the Middle East.
“[I] got a beautiful big magnificent free airplane for the United States Air Force,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “Very proud of that.”
The outstanding legal work is not expected to scuttle the plane deal, the officials said, but the clarifications are likely to invite further scrutiny of the administration’s claims about how the deal originated.
Trump initially said it was Qatar that reached out and offered him the luxury jet free of charge. In fact, it was the Trump administration that first approached Qatar this winter about acquiring the plane through a sale after the president made clear to aides that he was upset about delays of two Boeing jets purchased during his first term for $3.9 billion, officials said. Discussion about the sale later evolved into Qatar agreeing to provide the plane as a gift, a development reported previously by CNN and the New York Times…
In recent weeks, Qatar has faced intense criticism from Democrats and some Republicans for the luxury jet arrangement. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and a group of fellow Democrats introduced legislation to block $1.9 billion in arms sales to Doha unless the offer was rescinded.
“It’s an illegal bribe that the President of the United States is champing at the bit to accept. That’s unconstitutional and not how we conduct foreign policy,” Murphy said at the time…
Trump’s determination to complete the deal has been apparent to his aides since he toured the aircraft on Feb. 15 at the Palm Beach International Airport and admired its interior, officials said. “They’re giving it to me,” Trump remarked to those around him…
After Trump toured the jet, Air Force officials reviewed the aircraft and found that it was “very poorly maintained” and would require millions of dollars just to bring it up to satisfactory maintenance conditions, said one person familiar with the matter. The Air Force assessed then that there was no way the jet could ferry the president in its current state.
The Air Force estimated then that it could cost $1.5 billion to meet those requirements. To then remove the military gear and convert it for civilian use after Trump leaves office could cost an estimated $500 million, said two people familiar with the matter.
One of these officials said it was unclear if those estimates still hold true, because the president has the authority to waive certain requirements, former U.S. officials said.
“If the president said, ‘I want this in a year and a half, and I don’t care what capabilities it has as long as it’s a luxury flying palace with my colors on it,’” then it can be done, said former Air Force secretary Frank Kendall. But he’ll have to waive some security requirements, which he can do, Kendall said. “He’s the commander in chief. Nobody’s going to make him have those features.”
=====
Breaking news: Qatar has clarified that Trump shook them down and that they were not bribing him voluntarily.
— skyline4438.bsky.social (@skyline4438.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 9:09 AM
====
Watch "'Raises a lot of questions': Qatar has spent nearly $100B in the U.S. to gain influence: Report" – youtu.be/iyGW1KiB4eE?…
— Lysette (@lowcarbloving.bsky.social) May 27, 2025 at 11:56 AM
chrome agnomen
wait. Trump shook them down? say it ain’t so.
Hildebrand
When even such a corrupt regime is telling you that you are a little overboard in the corruption/bribery business, well, you may need to walk it back a bit.
Not that Republicans will give a shit, but there you are.
JiveTurkin
Sometimes I do think the media is screwing with us and just plants ridiculous stories to see how gullible we are. But this is an actual story (with a slight embellishment):
Rep. Greg Steube’s (R-Fla.) Make Autorail Great Again Act threatens to withhold more than $150 million in annual federal grants to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
To receive the funding, the system would have to be renamed to the Washington Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access (WMAGA) — a play on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
D.C. would also have to refer to its Metrorail system as the “Trump Train,” another one of Trump’s oft-used slogans. The bill also requires that on a weekly basis one Congresswoman accompany the President on a ride on the train, and perform oral sex on him while chanting “maga, maga, maga” in rhythm to train’s movement..
Geminid
Trump chokes on the Qatar Pounder.
Motivated Seller
Wasn’t Trumps first impeachment because he tried to shake down Ukraine? I wonder if Susan Collins still thinks he learned his lesson.
MattF
“Qatar has asked the U.S. to clarify…”… HAHAHA. There are once-in-a-lifetime events when a career in journalism allows you to start a sentence like that. I’m jealous.
WTFGhost
Trying to read between the lines, I think Qatar is saying “we are gifting this to the US military only, and will not be responsible for regifting it to any Presidential Library!”
I’m curious as to *precisely* why they are objecting, especially if it’s not to avoid the clear bribe if they gift it to an organization under a single person’s control.
artem1s
Why wait a year and a half? Make it so, I say.
jackmac
@Motivated Seller: Susan Collins is very concerned.
WTFGhost
@artem1s: Dramatic irony: he takes a ride in the flying palace, and is shot down by a Chinese weather balloon.
Baud
Maybe he can waive the ability to check for turbulence.
Chief Oshkosh
@WTFGhost: That’s some weather balloon, that Chinese weather balloon.
Baud
@WTFGhost:
China is going to protect Trump’s life with everything they have.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: Delete your account.
Baud
@Hildebrand:
Qatar’s human rights report on the treatment of immigrant labor by the US is to be embarrassing.
Lapassionara
@Baud: This! To both China and Russia, Trump is the gift that keeps on giving.
Harrison Wesley
Something about this feels a bit strange, as if Qatar was waiting for the right moment to stick in the harpoon.
Villiageidiocy
@JiveTurkin: went to his website – he’s full of shit. WMATA has improved greatly in the past few years. Man probably never uses it nor was around when it was much worse. Reminds of the general assholery towards government employees. Ugh.
artem1s
@WTFGhost:
all but 3 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and yet we blew Afghanistan and Iraq back to the stone age. Seems like Qatar is probably pretty safe from US military retribution if the damn thing falls out of the sky. Ukraine or Micronesia probably better be worried.
Geminid
@Harrison Wesley: It is interesting timing, with Steve Witkoff in Doha trying to close on a Gaza ceasefire agreement.
lowtechcyclist
Looks like Trump’s tariffs are back on, at least temporarily. The D.C. Circuit stayed the decision by the Court of International Trade from taking effect pending appeal.
They Call Me Noni
What I’m getting from this is TACO’s brag that the really rich guy in the fancy bathrobe just arbitrarily decided to give me a fancy plane because I’m so awesome brag is falling apart.
Suzanne
LMAO. What a fucken chud. (The FFOTUS, that is.)
I am really enjoying TACO. It makes me laugh because acronyms was kinda FFOTUS’s thing, right? So it’s triggering him more than one might think.
Acronyms are kinda brainworm brilliance. The verbal equivalent of annoying-but-catchy jingle.
To celebrate TACO: It’s Raining Tacos.
Ruckus
@WTFGhost:
Because if the gift it to him, he owns it. If they give it to the US military it belongs to all of us and shitforbrains can’t take it with him when this disaster is over. And if I’m not mistaken his personal plane is more than just a few years old, so he’d likely very much want to take it with him. I hope they don’t give it to him but to the office. Now it would likely be true that no one after him is going to want to fly on the plane that had his name on it, but the scrap value likely wouldn’t be bad. I mean let’s face it – who wants to fly on a plane he’s been inside of?
They Call Me Noni
@Suzanne: I will from here on out refer to him as TACO.
bobbo1
Not to worry, all of the other, less click-worthy bribes are proceeding apace.
p.a
(In that Russian comic’s voice)
“In America, every day is TACO Tuesday”
Jay
@Ruckus:
If the plane is President TACO’s personal property, doesn’t that mean he has to pay for the repairs and upgrades?
If OTOH it is Air Farce 1, the taxpayer is on the hook.
Scout211
TACO has an out already. Just like Goldilocks, he finds that the plane is not just right. He now is complaining that it’s “much too big.”
And Air Force One is much too small, TACO Goldilocks complains.
Can poor TACO Goldilocks find a plane that’s just right?
The Other Bob
I suspect the new jet, without the billions of dollars of customization that Boeing is providing their jets, will be more likely to be shot down.
Let Trump fly in the damn thing.
Wanderer
@Suzanne: spent many a morning listening to that song with the grandkids hopping and dancing around the kitchen.
Harrison Wesley
@Scout211: Why doesn’t he ask Elon to make one for him?
Betty Cracker
Anything that diminishes Dumbfuck Hitler’s air of impunity is a good thing. That’s why it was heartening to see his magic tariff wand confiscated by the trade court earlier in the week and why it’s disappointing that an appeals count stayed enforcement today. Ultimately, I’m hoping sanity prevails on that front, even if driven entirely by corrupt FedSoc judges’ personal interests.
Harrison Wesley
“Beautiful, big plane?” I’m surprised it didn’t have tears in its eyes while calling him “sir.” Dumb fuck.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: I am so, so sick of the NYT headlines about him. (I’m not reading the thing, but my husband leaves it lying around.) Every single headline includes some form of the word “threat.” With Biden, it was always “try” or “struggle.” But with Trump it’s “threat.” I REFUSE TO FEEL THREATENED BY THIS ASSHOLE. Of course he’s threatening all of us, but I refuse to let him skeer me.
zhena gogolia
Someone on here coined “Pervert Hoover.” I was hoping that would catch on.
Harrison Wesley
@zhena gogolia: I think the real threat is his clueless incompetence, not his blustering gibberish.
JoyceH
@The Other Bob: better than that – the Air Force reports that the plane has been “very poorly maintained” and it will take millions just to get it in flight worthy conditions by American standards and that’s before they do all the AF1 modifications. Heck, let him fly it as is – as far as Trump is concerned what matters is “it’s SHINY!”
kindness
@The Other Bob:
This is a Boeing plane that’s been poorly maintained. It won’t get shot down but it might drop important parts unexpectedly causing a crash.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Good for you! I’m trying not to let that waddling orange pustule occupy an inordinate amount of my time too. Also, “Pervert Hoover” is really good, and thank you for mentioning it as I had missed it before!
Suzanne
@Wanderer: Spawn uses it as her toothbrushing song.
I’m partial to “Yum Yum Breakfast Burrito”, personally.
chemiclord
You’d think the Qataris would know that you have to demand payment in advance from Trump.
JoyceH
And BTW, let’s really harp on this plane as an example of a counter-narrative to the False Belief That Will Not Die, the conviction that Trump is some master dealmaker. The FBTWND is the excuse the Republicans in Congress use for the fact that they have transformed themselves into doorstops, potted plants, and china dogs on the mantle – we’re going to just sit here and allow Trump to work his magic. Hey, look here guys, Mister Deal Maker got conned into accepting this enormous white elephant of a rundown plane that going to take millions just to get back in the air! You’re really letting this gullible rube (who went bankrupt running casinos) take total control of the national economy?
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: @zhena gogolia:
Yeah, that’s funny AF.
I wonder if the younger crew will get it. I didn’t know Hoover’s first name until I was fairly old, and didn’t really appreciate how he sank us deeper into the Depression until I listened to a podcast that took a deep dive into the topic a few years ago. Also, I thought he had invented the vacuum.
They Call Me Noni
@Wanderer: cute song. Will have to introduce the great granddaughter to it. Currently “the Floor is Lava” in the living room is all the rage.
NutmegAgain
Hasn’t the greasy orange rage troll be saying lately that the plane is too big? I immediately thought that complaint was a pretext for some other shit he wants to pull.
They Call Me Noni
@Harrison Wesley: Best idea!!!
lowtechcyclist
@zhena gogolia:
I like it! But “Manchurian Cantaloupe” is still the winner.
Gloria DryGarden
@bobbo1: we need to get those out in the open..
They Call Me Noni
@Harrison Wesley: I think they real threat is that he has so many people who drink the kool-aid he serves and has all the R’s scared shitless of being primaried when if they would stand together against him they would be much better off.
Melancholy Jaques
@They Call Me Noni:
I refuse to accept the “Republicans are scared to oppose him” claims. As far as I can tell they love him & agree with everything he says & does. It’s up to them to prove me wrong.
Gloria DryGarden
Goldilocks, and the story of just right. Big beautiful plane, plane too big.
Im rethinking blunt headlines for her story, because what was she even doing in someone else’s house?
innocent girl has forest misadventure.
failure to obey societal norms leads to trespassing and destruction of property in local woods
child of good home helps herself to others’ property, stealing and breaking, invading, in incident last weekend…
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Suzanne: The other reason it’s really chafing him is he knows being perceived as a chicken is death to a wannabe dictator and really anathema to his entire bullshit persona as a tough guy.
Gloria DryGarden
@Melancholy Jaques: that’s what’s really weird. That they could believe in all that. Some of them are intelligent educated people.
and if they’re afraid, why should they pass the scary dangers on to us? They’re being paid to use power and influence to make a stand for their constituents. What are we, meatloaf?
Ruckus
@They Call Me Noni:
I imagine that shitforbrains has threatened his “supporters” in congress that if they don’t back him up 1000% they won’t last a day longer. I have zero actual knowledge of this but I’m not betting on it not being true. He is a Don from NY after all……
NotMax
@Suzanne
Did someone say TACO?
:)
Gloria DryGarden
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: but he is chicken.
And we need to make a slogan for it. Not getting a bright idea yet, but someone will.
still relishing Gemind’s “Trump chokes on Qatar pounder”
Jay
If Taco Bell isn’t featuring a special on their menu, consists of a chicken taco in a Cheeto dusted hard shell, they are really missing out.
StringOnAStick
Somewhere on bluesky I saw a photo of a light orange, dare I saw “YELLOW” chicken with the Manchurian cantaloupe’s dead ferret photoshopped on its head. It was a head shot looking right at the chicken, and you know how ridiculous chickens can look from that angle. That needs to be on the TACO stickers we can paste everywhere.
prostratedragon
@Harrison Wesley: That’s the context of the famous Lebowitz Prinicple; that his superlative stupidity was the scariest thing about him.
Jay
@StringOnAStick:
Come get your Taco Memes here.
https://nitter.poast.org/P_Kallioniemi/status/1928136709515989356#m
jonas
@Scout211: Oh ffs. Virtually every foreign leader, save for the POTUS, flies on a much more modest aircraft than a Boeing 747. The Arabs have blinged out jumbo jets because they’re fucking autocratic petrostate kleptocrats and leaders of liberal democracies usually have better taste than to try to imitate that. But then there’s Trump.
What did Rick Wilson compare the plane to? Something dreamed up by Liberace and Saddam Hussein? Lol!
scav
Surely something could be done with the Errors’ round 1 Cinco de Mayo tweet about the Best Taco bowls being made in the Trump Tower Grill, no?
jonas
One flows directly from the other.
jonas
@They Call Me Noni: Gerrymandering is a double-edged sword, particularly for Republicans. Any Republican is virtually guaranteed to be re-elected, but you can also find yourself trapped in the asylum with the MAGA inmates if things go south.
Geminid
@Ruckus: Thomas Massie (KY) likes to point out that he got more votes in his district than Trump did. Massie can probably survive politically if he keeps bucking Trump like he has been.
A lot of Republican House members won’t. Even the ones who can withstand primary challenges will lose, because enough Trumpers will stay home to sink them in November. Democrats won’t cross over to save them; some Independents might but they can’t be relied upon.
I think Mike Johnson will see a lot of his caucus retire this cycle. Some have likely decided already. I think members of that group are the potential votes to kill the Big Ugly Piece of Crap.
Ed. But I think that in the end, Republican House members will pass the bill.
CHETAN MURTHY
@p.a: yakov Smirnoff is Ukrainian, born in Odessa. 😁
jonas
You may be right. That may be why we’re seeing so little pushback, even off the record, against what Trump’s doing even as his poll numbers are setting off alarm bells for anyone thinking of running for reelection in 26. Either that, or they’ve been told by someone in the WH not to worry, that the midterms will be “taken care of.”
prostratedragon
@jonas:
For instance,
twbrandt
President TACO, Snowflake-in-chief
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: The stay is a temporary administrative thing right now. Don’t read anything into it.
prostratedragon
@twbrandt:
“Mental anguish!”
Best laugh of the day so far.
Jay
https://bsky.app/profile/marisakabas.bsky.social/post/3lqdmjwzbhk2t
suzanne
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Yeah, which is why I enjoy it. (Friendly reminder that I’m an asshole.)
Regina George would taunt Trump. She might be my personal north star here.
jonas
I wondered that as a kid myself! The nickname is unfair to Hoover, I think, who wasn’t a blithering idiot, but who did completely fail to grasp the scope of the looming Great Depression (economically or politically) or what needed to be done about it. There had been “panics” before. You just ride them out and everything is eventually fine. Not this time, unfortunately.
jonas
Fixed.
BellyCat
@Scout211: TACO Goldilocks is nominated.
Jay
https://bsky.app/profile/pbump.com/post/3lqctgswvic2z
mrmoshpotato
@Geminid:
Should’ve happened when Nixon was in office.
suzanne
@jonas: Hoover had also been an engineer, so it wasn’t dumb for a kid to think he invented the household appliance that had his name on it!
I also grew up in the NYC suburbs, and I remember my entire class being gobsmacked when we finally learned that the Underground Railroad was not in fact similar to the subway that our parents took every day to go to work.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@suzanne: It’s why I enjoy it too and enjoying it doesn’t make you an asshole. TACO deserves every bit of ridicule that comes his way and then some. And the rest of us should enjoy the schadenfreude. We haven’t got much else at this point.
mrmoshpotato
@Motivated Seller:
Yes.
Susan Collins is a perpetually concerned failure of a Senator. She should’ve resigned in disgrace years ago.
suzanne
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Fetterman shitposted and trolled Oz all the way to the Senate. We should take a cue. At least we’d be amused!
Wanderer
@They Call Me Noni: We’ve played that one a lot too. It’s fun stuff.
Geminid
@jonas: Also, gerrymanders can be too aggressively drawn, and expose more members to loss in a wave election than they would if drawn more conservatively.
This happened in Virginia in the 2017 statewide elections. A Republican gerrymander in 2011 had resulted in a 65-35 Republican House of Delegates majority, even though Virginia was basically a 50-50 state.
That majority held up in 2015. Then in 2017, blam! the Republicans lost 14 seats. They would have lost a 15th if their candidate hadn’t won a drawing to resolve a tied election. The Democrats held those new seats in 2019, and added more to win a majority.
Some of our gains could be attributed to demographic shift, but some were due to an overly aggressive gerrymander. They had overreached in 2011, and it came to bite them later that decade.
Wanderer
@Suzanne: That’s great. What a fun start to the day ….. I might try it one of these mornings. I’ve never heard ‘Yum Yum Burrito’ but I bet it’s a fun one too.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: My kid would get it, she paid attention in AP US History.
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: How much piss-colored fake hair will be found in these tacos?
mrmoshpotato
@twbrandt:
Boo hoo, Bitchass! You can resign.
Matt McIrvin
@JoyceH: The MAGA aviation-fan storyline, as far as I can tell, is that this Qatari plane is some kind of master-dealer bargaining chip to somehow make progress on the planes Boeing has been working on since the first Trump administration happen faster.
Jay
https://bsky.app/profile/charlotteclymer.bsky.social/post/3lqbwil64lc2i
YY_Sima Qian
I was wondering why Qatar would bribe Trump w/ an old aircraft such as a Boeing 747, rather than something new, such as a Boeing 787. Or at least something newer, such as a Boeing 777.
Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
Shredded cheese?
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
They spent 4 years trying to sell the pig in a poke. 0 interest.
And then a sucker walked on board.
Matt McIrvin
@YY_Sima Qian: My impression is that the Air Force really wants AF1 to be a quad-jet for redundancy reasons, but, of course, nobody is making quad-jets any more, because the fuel economy is bad and you’re now allowed to fly across oceans without them (ETOPS). So it’s kind of a pickle. The 747-8 is at least the newest model.
Similarly, there’s nothing being made today that quite matches up to the overpowered 757s that are usually used as Air Force Two.
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: I didn’t say cheese.
Matt McIrvin
(Also, the 747-8 is the biggest US airliner ever made, and the 777 and 787, while newer basic designs, are not as big. The 777’s almost there, but not quite–the biggest model is slightly longer than a 747, but it hasn’t got that upper deck. Big is important to Trump.)
Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
My understanding is that everyone who works on Air Farce 1 has to have Nat Sec Clearances, so the construction teams are very small, and as new vulnerabilities emerge, the plans need to be continually updated.
mrmoshpotato
@YY_Sima Qian: To elaborate on what Jay said, Dump is a dumbass, and Qatar dumped this plane on his dumb ass.
There’s probably some massively illegal bribery going on here, because Dump is a massively corrupt pile of shit.
Geminid
@CHETAN MURTHY: I looked Yaakov Smirnoff up and sure enough, he’s still performing at his Branson, Missouri theatre. I think this is his 32nd year there.
Smirnoff’s next appearance will be Wednesday, June 4 and he’ll take the stage again the following two Wednesdays. You could probably still get tickets!
They Call Me Noni
@Ruckus: If J6 doesn’t prove that he holds sway over a vast number of people who will destroy whoever and whatever he commands I don’t know what does. Yes, they are scared. A few of them believe as he does but most of them know better.
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid: dinner at Cracker Barrel before the show
Matt McIrvin
@Matt McIrvin: …she says “Tandrew Jackson” would be a better name, but a lot of people including Trump himself would probably consider that a compliment (she doesn’t).
They Call Me Noni
@jonas: No kidding. Just look at what he did to the Oval Office and I’m sure he has done unspeakable thing to MAL.
They Call Me Noni
@jonas: Well there’s always the promise of a pardon.
JoyceH
@Jay: In addition, during Trump I, Trump wanted to change the color scheme of AF1. Basically he wanted red, white, and blue with gold, like his antique Trump plane. Problem was that the darker blue caused parts of the engine to overheat. And rather than saying well, never mind then, Trump insisted on his design which required a lot of engine rejiggering. Then Biden came in and said we’re keeping the classic Kennedy colors, and the engine redesign was shelved. And then – sigh, Trump came back.
They Call Me Noni
@YY_Sima Qian: I read somewhere (maybe here) that they have been trying to unload it for quite some time now with no takers.
JoyceH
BTW, is this a good place to mention the HHS report on child health supposed to reference the “gold standard of medical research”? It had quite a few cites to papers that don’t exist, and those that did exist had their conclusions warped to fit the new agenda.
MagdaInBlack
@mrmoshpotato: I’ve suffered mental anguish every fkn day since the 1st time he was elected. Where’s my settlement?
Jay
@JoyceH:
Yeah, the MAHA “report” appears to just be an AI generated “report”.
RaflW
@Motivated Seller:
“I wonder if Susan Collins still thinks.”
That’s it. That’s the comment.
Gloria DryGarden
@MagdaInBlack: me too.
JoyceH
@Jay: Does AI always lie and fantasize, or just when Republicans use it?
Geminid
@Steve in the ATL: Now you’re talkin!
brantl
@jonas: I think you may have missed out on how all these people leverage their stocks to buy so many more stocks that the money that they had spent for them was inherently worthless. Republicans have tried to make economic cancer, a thing for generations and every time they have they’ve tanked the economy.
Jay
MagdaInBlack
@JoyceH: You have to refine the parameters (is that the right word?) you can’t just say write me a report on such ‘n’ such. I’m not saying it wont “make up stuff” but you will get better results if you refine your request, and keep refining it.
Jay
@JoyceH:
AI, properly called Large Language Models, is trained on huge volumes of Social Media and stolen Media, with no human vetting, so it’s GIGO, Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Harrison Wesley
@Ruckus: True. John Gotti was the Dapper Don; this bozo is the Diaper Don.
different-church-lady
@Suzanne: Hoover was still alive when I was born.
Kayla Rudbek
@JoyceH: sounds like they let the AI do the research and didn’t check the citations, just like some law firms are doing. At least the judges slap down the law firms when they pull that nonsense…
Kayla Rudbek
@JoyceH: it has problems with text data no matter what (hallucination is the jargon used, personally I call it lying and/ or bullshitting)
Jay
Harrison Wesley
@twbrandt: I am reminded of a statement by one of America’s greatest Vice Presidents: “Or you take the United Negro College Fund model, what a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.”
prostratedragon
@different-church-lady: Nothing yet has made me feel as old as the realization that I was born in the Truman Administration.
RaflW
@YY_Sima Qian: The 747-8 is quite modern, it just sold extremely poorly because there’s just no need for 4 engines on any aircraft except it and the A380 (also a poor seller). 4 engine planes are less fuel efficient per passenger mile, even if the total passengers carried is greater (the 777X will hold almost as many ppl as a 747-8 and use two engines).
I guess the ‘gift’ aircraft is 8 years old – young for a VVIP plane that probably has few cycles (one takeoff and landing).
Interesting that the Emir gifted a earlier 747-8 to Türkiye, so there is some precedent (and that one caused tensions in the recipient nation, too).
Anyway, I’m glad there’s some sturm und drang bubbling up. It’s pretty f’ing corrupt and should stay in the news!
catclub
you and I both probably thought the same way about classified documents. Trump definitely thinks the plane is his.
zhena gogolia
@Jay: That actually sounds delicious. 😃
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I did not picture you as a taco and Cheeto girl.
RaflW
@JoyceH: Trump’s ‘design’ looks a lot like either the last-gen TWA or US Airways paint jobs, can’t now remember which. But of course he’s just derivative and utterly uncreative.
I love how incredibly distinct any of the US presidential fleet look (wether Gulfstream, 757 or the big old (literally) 747-200s). No other nation’s livery is anything like it. But the TACO color scheme is super generic. Huh.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady: I actually saw him once. 😀
zhena gogolia
@Baud: You were wrong.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I usually am.
glc
@lowtechcyclist: Not exactly pending appeal – probably two or three weeks while they decide whether a stay pending appeal is warranted.
Harrison Wesley
@Jay: Anti-Avelo demonstration coming up soon here at SRQ airport.
catclub
@Harrison Wesley:
Maybe with 36 or so engines. And if one fails all the others blow up as well.
Harrison Wesley
@prostratedragon: So was I. My parents told me I took my first steps during the 1952 election. They thought I was headed out to vote for Ike.
Timill
@RaflW: Built 2012, entered service 2015, per https://www.prestigeonline.com/sg/lifestyle/motoring/air-force-one-vs-boeing-747-8-jet-qatar/
Doc Sardonic
Like most everything Leon Skum does, he copied someone else’s homework. His rocket design is a cover band riff on an old Soviet rocket, that since he didn’t check all of the homework he copied, he didn’t clue in that the Soviets trashed the design because it didn’t work.
Jay
@Doc Sardonic:
Yup,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N1_(rocket)
prostratedragon
Geminid
@RaflW: Trump and Turkish President Erdogan are pretty tight, too.* Trump may have gotten the idea of asking Qatar for a 747 because he knew they’d given Turkiye one for Erdogan’s use.
* Erdogan and his shrewd deputy Hakan Fidan carefully cultivated Trump during his first term. Back then Fidan directed Turkiye’s intelligence agency M.I.T. and now he’s Erdogan’s Foreign Minister. It wouldn’t have been very hard for Fidan to figure Trump out and help his boss win him over.
karen gail
@different-church-lady:
I don’t remember his death or funeral even though it was after JFK’s. I remember the wall-to-wall coverage of JFK and the pictures of John Jr saluting; the poor kid was three and that picture was everywhere.
They Call Me Noni
@jonas: Can they all be shipped off to El Salvador?
Gloria DryGarden
@prostratedragon: jeebus
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: to what end? How does it benefit Turkiye?
Gloria DryGarden
@JoyceH: it’s no reason to let a whole country overheat and be brought close to crashing, over some color and decor preferences..
Ruckus
@Jay:
First – wouldn’t that be enjoyable. Second, I seriously doubt it because shitforbrains does not like to spend a cent of his own money, not when he can spend ours.
Is the Air Force buying it with their budget? Because that seems to me that would be the only way it would be theirs. And if they aren’t who is? shitforbrains isn’t going to spend a dime of his I’d bet.
Ruckus
@YY_Sima Qian:
Because they can get him to get someone to pay for it, us most likely, but still why in the hell would they give it to him? They’d get nothing out of doing that. And in shitforbrains, that tiny little whatever that acts as a brain at some level, mostly at pure bullshit level – or lower, he believes he is the greatest human being alive and that everyone owes him everything. It’s a crisis of epic proportions, that the leader of this country is an obnoxious 5 year old moron in a seemingly 98 yr old body.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: This may have been inadvertant. I don’t think Erdogan would tell Trump to ask Qatar for a plane; he wouldn’t put the Qataris on the spot like that.. But maybe Erdogan bragged about his 747 and Trump decided he wanted one.
It’s an interesting relationship. Both leaders speak of each other as friends and say they look forward to meeting again. I think Erdogan will come here first.
Although I’d like it if Trump visited Ankara just so people could see the dress uniforms the honor guards wear: sky-blue, knee-length coats and white helmets, white belts and white gaiters. They look like fancy traffic cops. They don’t seem very warlike, but the Turks seem to have no insecurities in that area.
Gvg
I thought the law was President had to pay for gifts he decided to keep. I don’t think Trump can finagle this gift the way he thinks he can even with a compliant Congress. However looking on the bright side this is the first time I have seen him talk about leaving office instead of a third term. So that’s good. Maybe someone is working on making leaving seem safe and attractive. If so good work.
I can’t help noticing that Jared and Ivanka are still staying far far away this time while the antisemitism is getting more open in the party. And Trump certainly isn’t stopping it. His other kids aren’t as prominent either though Jr is still around.
Scout211
They are trying to get around that by stating that it will be moved to his presidential library after he leaves office. A gigantic plane on display in his presidential library which will have to be a super huge library building for that plane to fit in a display. That is, when he’s not using it for all his official post-President official presidential library duties. Which will be from one of his golf courses to another. LOL
Jay
@Ruckus:
There isn’t free parking for 747’s at airports, and like boats and yachts, you are charged by the foot. There is also regular maintenance, even if it isn’t actively flying, just to keep an airworthiness cert. It was probably costing Qatar at least $500,000 a year or more just to keep it parked.
They have been trying for years to sell the “Flying Bordello” with zero interest, until they showed it off to Chump.
The USAF says it will take at least 1.5 years and at least $15million to get it airworthy.
A Google search say’s it’s worth $20K as scrap, $800K as “needs repair”, $1.2 -$1.8 million if “fly off the lot”, more if it’s a low airmiles, pimped out shag palace only flown by a Qatari Grandmother only on weekends for shopping in Paris.
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: That makes sense!
NotMax
@prostratedragon
Pull up a cane and stand by another one.
:)
YY_Sima Qian
@RaflW: Thanks for the elaboration.
NotMax
@RaflW
“We gave the good one to Turkiye.”
//
sab
@Jay: Our genius at “deals”. Qataris took him to the cleaners, but he tried to foist it off on us USA and behind the scenes congressional protests spooked the Qataris.
This is so very Trump. So who gets stuck with this elderly plane? Who cares?
Jackie
@sab:
Hopefully not WE taxpayers!
sab
@Jackie: This whole plane thing proves again that everything Trump touches dies.
sab
@Gvg: Laws are for peons, not presidents. Ask the Supreme Courr.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: some delightful taco memes. Liked the tortilla chip corona one, a la frida kahlo…
sab
@Suzanne: That’s awful. But I don’t have a small child. I am hoping my grandaughter outgows her unicorn obsession soon.