Donald Trump’s grubby fingerprints have finally been removed from Air Force One
“Air Force One is going to be incredible,” Trump announced in 2018 after inking a deal with Boeing. “It’s going to be the top of the line, the top in the world. And it’s going to be red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate.” It turns out Trump got only the first part right, reminding us again how elections have consequences.
In the more than two years and counting since President Joe Biden has been in office, he has had to reverse or counter a wide range of Trump policies, initiatives, and plans that are harmful to America, whether it concerns the environment, the economy, or the proper functioning of our society. The Air Force One redesign is a case of Biden saving America from another one of Trump’s faux-patriotic boondoggles.
It may be easy to hug an American flag in front of cameras, but Trump is learning that getting the U.S. Air Force to proceed with a “cartoon,” as Lt. Gen Duke Richardson called Trump’s redesign in 2021, is another matter. Obsessed with replacing the iconic light blues selected by President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy with red, white, and a darker blue, Trump’s idea was destined to be grounded.
Among other issues, Trump’s vision of a dark blue hue covering the bottom half of Air Force One would retain so much heat that it would require expensive cooling modifications, according to the Air Force’s thermal study. Proceeding with such a plan would also require more “Federal Aviation Administration testing for several commercial components,” according to a release issued on Friday.
Without bothering to mention Trump, the Air Force brushed off the controversy by simply explaining that it “previously displayed a red, white, and blue livery for the VC-25B because it had been publicly expressed as a preferred livery in 2019.” When Trump revealed his redesign in June of that year, he told Fox News, “The baby blue doesn’t fit with us.” Well, in November 2020, America sent Trump a message that he and his horrible ideas don’t fit with us. Without Trump in power, the sky’s the limit.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month