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Air Force Dumb
Qatar is gifting Trump a $400 million luxury 747 to serve as a temporary Air Force One, but experts warn that retrofitting it to meet presidential security standards could take years, cost hundreds of millions more, and risk national security due to potential embedded surveillance.
The current VC-25s aren’t just repainted 747s. They’re a pair of flying fortresses that must be capable of allowing the president to run the country, survive wartime conditions (even nuclear), and be totally secure from outside influence or intrusion. While the precise details of the current airframe are a tightly guarded secret, some details are included on government fact sheets or have been revealed in various media reports. For a start, it must have an in-flight refueling capability so the president can go anywhere in the world and stay up as long as needed. Retrofitting this to an existing 747 would be very expensive, as the feds would need to strengthen portions of the hull to handle the refueling system and reconfigure the fuel tanks to handle trim issues.
Then there’s the hull, which is known to be armored, and the windows are also thicker than you’d find on a normal flight. The government would also need to build in weapons systems like the chaff rockets used against radar-guided missiles, flares against heat seekers, and AN/ALQ-204 Matador Infrared Countermeasure systems, or similar to try and confuse incoming missiles. Next up, the engines and electrical systems would have to be replaced. The electronics in the current VC-25s are hardened as much as possible against an electromagnetic pulse that would be generated by a nuclear detonation. There are also claims that the aircraft have extra shielding in the engines to help against missile fragments should a physical attack happen.
Next up are communications. Air Force One has air-to-ground, air-to-air, and satellite comms systems that are thought to be the equal of what’s in the White House. There are at least two separate internal phone systems - one open and the other highly secure - that would need to be installed and checked as well. Then there are incidentals. Contrary to what films will tell you, there is no escape capsule on the current Air Force One, nor a rear parachute ramp, but there is a medical suite with emergency equipment and space for a physician which would already need to be installed, as well as a secured cargo area designed to prevent tampering or unauthorized access. As for the threat of embedded surveillance devices, Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aircraft consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said: “You’d have to take it apart piece by piece to stop a professional operator putting in lots of equipment to confuse things, like spare sensors and wiring.”
“It wouldn’t be in the air before 2030 at the earliest, long after he’s left office and probably later than the existing planned replacements,” said Aboulafia. “It makes no sense on any level, except that he wants a free 747 for himself. Nothing else makes any sense.”
“What’s sort of annoying about the whole thing is I’m not sure what’s wrong with the current Air Force One,” Aboulafia said. “Maybe if they gave it a gold makeover, he’d like it more.”
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I know how this is going to end. Trump will ignore all security advice and just move right into the new plane without any delay or investigation. He dubs the plane “Air Force Gold.” He quickly forgets the security warnings and moves on with his term. Unfortunately for him, in time he also forgot who gave him that plane. Which is why he didn’t think twice when in 2026, he stabbed the Qataris in the back in a crucial trade deal, arms contract, or international incident. One night, when the plane is flying over the remote Pacific, all systems aboard suddenly shut down. No control surfaces respond. The engines shut down and all control is lost. Gold Force One spirals downward, eventually striking the water at 400 mph. The debris of the plain quickly sinks, weighed down by literal gold. There are no survivors. “The Tale of Trump” eventually becomes a new Aesop.
This is the stupidest timeline. We miss you Harambe
He’s living the dream with the quadriscut
Perhaps Harambe was saving us from an even darker timeline.
Nice dream
The real question is “what news is trump trying to bury with this 747 crap”
Not only that - and the fact that it’s not a free gift at all, since it’ll absolutely come with strings attached and it’ll cost millions upon millions of taxpayer money to retrofit Trump’s personal Airforce 1 - but Trump also stated:
We give free things out. We’ll take one, too
No, Donnie. Not “we”. Other administrations, and indirectly taxpayers give “free” things out, and not even then, because even foreign aid is a form of securing power and influence abroad - an investment, to speak in your corporate terms. You do not give anything for free, being the so-called “transactional President” you are so proud to be - there’s only grift, free lux planes, free weekly golf trips to Trump courses and tax cuts for your class when you’re the one in the Oval Office. Like you love to claim that “We aid Ukraine”, when the previous administration was the only one to actually help, while as soon as you took office you started undermining and weakening Ukraine’s position in the war.
You mean “The US gives out while I cut all forms of aid and reinforce corruption, but I get to benefit from it more than anyone else.” FTFY. Imagine Obama or Biden, who certainly did not grift even nearly at your level, and at least did their jobs even if imperfectly, going “We give things out, so we’ll get some as well”, as they accepted millions-worthy gifts for their personal use during and after their terms.
Not american, btw, but I know the way I wrote might lead some to that conclusion. Not my intent to give the lead anyone to wrong assumptions.
Oh come on now… does Trump ever say anything important?
Haha…. Hahahahaha…… hahahaha…… ha
😭
Good. Idiot.
Maybe he’ll die? please?
Not sure who would want to kill him. Assad? But he’s already deposed. Hamas or Jordan could probably get intel from the Saudis, but lack firepower.
Russia and China are celebrating President Idiot, definitely don’t want to replace him with somebody competent.
I really hope Trump fucks himself over so monumentally on his quest for personal affirmations that he gets himself killed, or worse.
At this point, with all the crazy unreal stuff happening - tinfoil hat on - I’m not even 100% sure his previous assassination attempt was not staged. The more I think about it, the way the shooter managed to get past security and actually fire shots, how the shooter was being framed as a mad leftist (except not really, it seems), and how Trump already had so many pieces in place before election (Project 2025)…
Sure, I was convinced that the near-missed shot to the ear was impossible to fake - what would be the chances? But how about shooting in the general direction of Trump, faking a shot, while a micro-explosive device from the dark spy budgets gets placed on his ear? Tech is always evolving, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if such a device existed. A ripped ear in exchange for being a quasi-martyr and getting lots of support as “God’s chosen survivor” - not a bad tradeoff. Way too many coincidences along the way, to the point it becomes a pattern. Almost befitting a man who lost once and would go to any lenght to make sure he’d not lose ever again.
Anyways, even if somehow something as crazy as this could even happen - and it being found out - what would be the chances of him actually facing consequences for it? That said, I share your hope anyway.
How do we know he was actually wounded? It could have just been a blood pack.
Or worse 💦💦
As for the threat of embedded surveillance devices, Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aircraft consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said: “You’d have to take it apart piece by piece to stop a professional operator putting in lots of equipment to confuse things, like spare sensors and wiring.”
What if the Qataris or Russia install a kill switch? Every time the president flies, it’s by the good grace of some foreign overlord. All that to fly in a plane that looks like some kitsch hotel…
That was my first thought… please have a kill switch! A hypersensitive one.
Remember the button they had to keep pressing in LOST? That.
Really like this story. trumps greed is on full display because wants a palace so bad he can’t even fathom that this is a bad idea at every conceivable level.
Shows he doesn’t care about spending money when it’s himself. Dossnt care about a gift from terrorist supporters. Doesn’t care about the money it would cost dismantling that to search for bugs. lol.
“It makes no sense on any level, except that he wants a free 747 for himself. Nothing else makes any sense.”
Glad to see this spelled out so clearly.
Putting in a reasonable amount of effort to retrofit it will be ready around 2028.
As for the threat of embedded surveillance devices, Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aircraft consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, said: “You’d have to take it apart piece by piece to stop a professional operator putting in lots of equipment to confuse things, like spare sensors and wiring.”
“It wouldn’t be in the air before 2030 at the earliest, long after he’s left office and probably later than the existing planned replacements,” said Aboulafia. “It makes no sense on any level, except that he wants a free 747 for himself. Nothing else makes any sense.”
Emphasis mine.
It is honestly probably easier to build a whole new plane than to take that thing apart sufficiently to eliminate any chance of spy devices.
…and at extreme cost. This is not very DOGE-aligned at all.
Cluster B personality disorder being played like a stringed puppet. There’s no way this plane isn’t rigged to surveillance and doesn’t have a kill switch.
Most people run away from Cluster B. 76 million ran to it to no vote for a democrat. And now here we are.
Q: Which Cluster B personality disorder?
A: Yes
This was literally my first thought. You’d basically have to go through every one of the millions of components across every square inch to verify there was nothing sketchy going on. Not to mention, you’d have to review all of the software and firmware to make sure it wasn’t modified or sabotaged in some way. It would take an excruciating amount of effort to make it “safe”.
Any sane person with critical thinking skills can see this is a bad idea, so obviously Trump loves it.
Software alone would probably have to be replaced.
Who in their right mind in the US government would trust another country, any country, to install and run their own software on their leaders aircraft … especially an aircraft that would be used in an emergency event.
My hope is that they didn’t put in any kill switch or have any malicious intention whatsoever. But, through shear incompetence, they did manage to make it have the bumpiest, most nausea-inducing ride of any 747 ever. The Qataris stuffed the thing with gold without any consideration of aircraft vibrational dynamics. And while the plane will still fly safely, it will mean Trump has to fly around in a giant golden vomit comet.
Hmm know you know how the rest of the world feels about American companies running everything. Yes the west let it happen but it still sucks.
Unfortunately they’re not in their right mind.
I mean the top leaders are using Signal right off the shelf without a second thought already, the dumb shits.
Not hey are not. They’re using a modified signal that logs everything.
That’s not entirely true. They’re also using a modified version of signal that is less secure than the default
literally just handing state secrets to a rogue nation
And even then. Integrated circuits in some system may have been replaced by fake versions carrying some extra functions, it would be relatively cheap to have this done, especially for a kingdom with billions in spare change, and damn near impossible to detect
They could just put a gold-covered iPhone in the shitter and he’d log in and use it
Oh please. He’s already blurting out everything he knows onlate-night Xitter and Truthiness. And he refuses briefings, so that’s not much anyway. Just send him up with nobody but his panderers, so any spies will only hear his shitty stories about himself. Eventually they’ll get so sick of it they’ll shoot him down. Oh, well!
Hey some of us are hoping for hardcore sketch.
Hey some of us are hoping for hardcore sketch.
Trump (age 79) crosses yet another boundary of morals and decency by becoming the first serving president to star in a porn film. A gaudy production filmed in the Golden Halls of Gold Force One. He performs various sexual acts with several young women, each bearing an uncanny resemblance to one of his own female family members.
I hope it explodes in midair with his whole damn family onboard.
A wing falling off midair would give them more time to consider karma on the way down.
It would probably be less expensive to design a completely new one from the ground up whose interior looks identical to the Qatari jet, rather than retrofit the offered one. But either way it wouldn’t be ready for years…
The current Air Force One uses fossil fuels. That’s a huge issue.
And this one doesn’t? I don’t know of a plane they doesn’t use fossil fuels.
Yes. I was responding to the quote in the article that said they didn’t know what was wrong with AF1
It contributes to the climate catastrophe. We need to dismantle all these GHG emitting infrastructure.
Reminds me of the bugging of the new embassy in Moscow. It’s a cautionary tail in and of itself which relates to this jet.
Air and Space Forces Magazine: Cleaning the Bug House.
…“Mr. Ambassador, these are the plans that disclose how the bugging of your embassy took place, and these are the instruments that were used,” said Bakatin. “I want them turned over to your government, no strings attached.” Strauss was dumbstruck, according to an account of the incident he gave later that year. After years of denial, the Soviet intelligence arm was admitting its role in one of the most notorious espionage incidents of the 1980s: It had packed the new US Embassy office building in Moscow with sophisticated listening devices. The edifice’s structure was so riddled with bugs that some US counterespionage experts described it as nothing but a giant microphone.
tale*
Animals have tails
