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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

The Boeing 747-8 being offered to Donald Trump by Qatar once served the Qatari royal family and has been sitting unsold for years.

The jet, a lavishly configured version of Boeing's largest passenger aircraft, has been lingering without a buyer since being put up for sale in 2020, according to aircraft listings and aviation analysts.

John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told Forbes that giving the 747-8 to the U.S. would allow the Qataris to avoid maintenance costs that were only getting higher—with the 747 fleet shrinking worldwide and fewer mechanics available who know how to work on them.

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[-] RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com 213 points 1 year ago

Trump is even bad at being bribed... 🙄

[-] SoloCritical@lemm.ee 56 points 1 year ago

Right? Being gifted a plane is kind of a financial nightmare.

[-] SecretSauces@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago

Its like "winning" a boat or car. Great, you have this thing you couldn't afford. Now pay the taxes on it, that you can't afford.

But also, we all know Trump doesn't pay taxes.

[-] ArtVandelay@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
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[-] Someone@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

What kind of country taxes prizes? Seems a bit ridiculous if you ask me.

[-] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 year ago

Prizes are income, otherwise companiea would hold a raffle each month to determine your salary.

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[-] El_guapazo@lemmy.world 89 points 1 year ago

It's the modem day white elephant. Lol

[-] fulcrummed@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

I had to do a double take. I thought your comment might have had an issue with keming…

[-] And009@lemmynsfw.com 10 points 1 year ago

Wait a minute... What's modem

[-] nibble4bits@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago

As long as it's Hayes compatible.

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[-] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago

It'd be funny if the US decides to accept the plane and then Boeing spends the next 4 years retrofitting it with all the military communications and air defense features that the typical Air Force One carries. Then if Trump leaves office, because of military secrets, they spend the next 4 years stripping it back down to civilian level and he dies before ever getting to use it.

[-] darkdemize@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 year ago

As a US taxpayer, I don't find that very amusing. Well, other than the part where Trump dies.

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[-] modus@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Ooh, say that last part again.

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[-] Kurious84@eviltoast.org 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Trump is like a little baby who wants something he knows he shouldn't have. Waaa. I want palace. If he thought he was leaving it 4 years he wouldn't accept.

Why don't they give it to him after his term is up. See if he goes for that. Promise you he wouldn't go for that deal. :). Wonder why.

At least it exposes his selfishness and greeed which is obscene that people need to have this demonstrated given the man clearly has some serious personality issues.

[-] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

Tell him that retrofitting it to AirForceOne security standards would "ruin the beautiful golden interior" so it will be better to just wait until he's a private citizen again and won't have to follow those stupid security rules. Meanwhile, as President, he'll have to keep using the "little" presidential aircraft.

He might be tempted into quitting early, or at least not extending his reign. Or he'll insist on using the unsecured plane, and maybe something catastrophic will happen over the Pacific.

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[-] Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de 44 points 1 year ago

Soon Musk will offer Trump a special Cybertruck as a replacement for The Beast. Because he doesn't know what to do with all those swasticars nobody buys anymore.

[-] InputZero@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

I wonder at what price point it becomes worth it to buy his swasticars and chop them up for parts. That's assuming that the parts aren't so poorly made that no one would want them. I have some nifty ideas for a battery pack that big, which would probably burn down my house.

[-] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 8 points 1 year ago

Rig them with remote controls, and then hold a competition. Each contest, different winning conditions and course are used. Month 1, modify the cars with weapons and duke it out. The next, a marathon where the car with the most distance is the victor, the third a destruction derby, and so forth.

It would be way more fun than a Mr. Beast show, I tell ya.

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[-] NABDad@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

My in-laws used to do this.

I love them, but every time they bought something new, they'd give us the old one like it wasn't something they were getting rid of. Easier to give it to us than throw it away.

The last time was a sofa and a love seat. We were stuck with the most uncomfortable furniture I've ever had in my life.

[-] glitchdx@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

I've started telling people to not give me their garbage.

I've made a lot of people upset, but also I don't have to dispose of other people's garbage, so as far as I'm concerned that's a win.

[-] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Tell them to deliver it, and send them the address of the county landfill.

[-] glitchdx@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

they just show up at my house, unannounced, usually while I'm not there, and my roommates tell me "here's a gift from ms derpinshnek", and I have to say "tell her to take it back."

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[-] Sir_Simon_Spamalot@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

If you don't like it, why would you take it?

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[-] Gloomy@mander.xyz 6 points 1 year ago

The last time was a sofa and a love seat. We were stuck with the most uncomfortable furniture I've ever had in my life.

Oh no. They realy gave you an uncomfortable sofa? Bummer. At least you got a nice love seat out of it.

[-] cactusupyourbutt@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

they gave away a used love seat?

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[-] obinice@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

I'm curious how they would convert this to be a functional Air Force One plane.

That aircraft is disassembled and reassembled almost entirely on a regular basis to keep it in tip top shape and find sabotage and issues, etc.

It's also equipped specially with military defences, and of course has an onboard suite of equipment and personnel to run a war from the sky, in air refuelling, etc etc.

It's an EXTREMELY specialised version of that very reliable aircraft, is what I'm saying.

How would they bring this new plane up to that standard, and why should they waste tax money on doing so? What's the benefit to the nation?

It all seems ridiculous from the outside looking in. It seems that they're just trying to appease a stupid man who thinks like a dodgy car salesman, and thus is happy to accept big dumb bribes, always getting the worst end of a deal, when the smarter people play him over and over.

...no?

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

How would they bring this new plane up to that standard

Spoilers: They absolutely will not be bringing this death trap up to the current plane's standards.

This will either site on a tarmac largely forgotten about for four years, at which point Trump will try and off-load it (if he hasn't completely forgotten he owns it). Or it'll become one of those "never going to be finished" government vanity projects that becomes an excuse to write blank checks to Boeing for billing statements littered with "Headlight Fluid: $4k, Crank Shaft Lengthening Service: $20k" line items.

Absolute best case scenario, someone in the administration actually tries to fly in this thing before the term is complete. And we all get to laugh (or cry, depending on who it lands on) on reading the consequences.

It seems that they’re just trying to appease a stupid man who thinks like a dodgy car salesman, and thus is happy to accept big dumb bribes

That's who Americans believe is best able to run our country. We have been kicking and screaming for the last 40 years to have the US run like a business. And what other business best exemplifies the US than Used Car Dealership?

[-] Dasus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

What's the benefit to the nation?

Why do you even jokingly use a framework in which you're assuming the current US government does anything "for the nation" instead of themselves?

And also, they're just gonna ward off attacks with, uhm... gilded smoothie machines and massaging chairs.

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[-] Philharmonic3@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

I have a submarine to sell this guy

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[-] disgrunty@slrpnk.net 28 points 1 year ago

A modern-day white elephant! Kind of hilarious that Trump of all people got it.

[-] aesthelete@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

🤞 there are mechanical difficulties with it

[-] yuknowhokat@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

We need everybody to tell good old Donnie that he was "gifted" a plane that's the equivalent to the rusty old piece of s*** car that's been sitting in the yard for 5 years and hasn't sold.

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[-] Draegur@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

Wow so it's not even a NEW plane but shitty high maintenance sloppy seconds.

The mandarin chief really does have a type...

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[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Car salesman puts one over on the senile real estate guy.

[-] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago

To meet Air Force One standards, the plane would need extensive modifications, including secure communications, nuclear blast shielding and missile defense systems.

Nuclear blast shielding?

[-] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

EMP shielding. Nuclear explosions release an absolutely insane amount of electromagnetic energy and it fries electronics. This is actually where the first EMP was observed - a high altitude nuclear test fried a bunch of electronics. The idea is that it needs to be able to keep flying even if a nuclear blast goes off even quite some distance away. There's obviously no way to actually nuke proof a plane, it would get vaporized or knocked out of the sky if it were close to the epicenter.

[-] Parsizzle@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

I think they have systems in place to stop EMPs from affecting and potentially taking down AirForce One, and nuclear blasts create EMPs that if left otherwise unshielded would do exactly that.

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[-] pupbiru@aussie.zone 7 points 1 year ago

i gonna make an assumption here and say probably EMP resistance?

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[-] Witchfire@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

On a scale from the Watergate hotel room to an American embassy in Moscow, how bugged do you think it is?

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[-] Doctor_Satan@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

Jesus fucking Christ... Qatar is basically a scumbag real estate agent conning an idiot into buying a condemned shack in a swamp as a "cozy waterfront getaway", but on a colossally stupid level.

[-] frostysauce@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Critics, however, fear that the acceptance would be unethical and even unconstitutional.

Newsweek could retain at least a shred of journalistic integrity by changing one word there:

Critics, however, ~~fear~~ note that the acceptance would be unethical and even unconstitutional.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago
[-] sfled@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I guess he finally realized that a 747 really is bigger and faster that his 757.

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[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Damn sure wouldn't waste a new one on him

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[-] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 year ago

see, thats the difference between a smart leader and a rube.

[-] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

So you're telling me there's a slight chance of a RUD mid-flight?

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this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
845 points (98.6% liked)

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