XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.misc
<
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/the-mideast-is-donald-trumps-safe-place>
After I noted the model airplane, Trump launched into a fond and factually
questionable recollection of how he had bargained Boeing down from $5.7
billion for a two-plane deal to provide an updated ride befitting America’s
Commander-in-Chief. “I said, ‘It has to have a three on the front,’ ” Trump
recalled of the negotiations. “ ‘It has to have a three.’ ” The final
agreed-upon price with Boeing, which the Pentagon signed off on in 2018,
was $3.9 billion.
But why, I wondered, did he feel so strongly about the upgrade? The answer,
it turned out, was simple, and it had nothing to do with national security:
Trump had a bad case of plane envy. “Air Force One is now thirty-one years
old,” he said. “People come in from, especially the Middle East countries,
with brand-new 747-800s, the brand-new super-duper-new one, and we have
planes that are thirty-one years old.” He recalled going to global summits
and looking out his window at the airport tarmac: “I would say, ‘Whose
plane is that?’ ‘That’s Saudi Arabia’s plane.’ ‘That’s U.A.E.’s plane.’ And
you’d see a brand-new 747, and I’d say, ‘Well, the United States should be
properly represented.’ ”
This wasn’t just a passing twinge of jealousy...
--
But that looks a little too much like a declaration for my tastes, when
in fact it isn't one. So forget I mentioned it.
-- Larry Wall in <
[email protected]>
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)