Trump’s rhetoric about the Air Force One gifted by Qatar takes a weird turn

On a daily basis, Donald Trump says all kinds of offensive things, but during remarks at Joint Base Andrews two weeks ago, he said something that nearly everyone could agree with. Unveiling the latest Air Force One, a luxury jet he received from Qatar, Trump said, “A normal president wouldn’t do this.”

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Unlike so many of the Republican’s public comments, this had the benefit of being entirely true: A normal president most certainly would not have accepted a luxury jet from Qatar — a Middle Eastern country that Trump used to accuse of supporting terrorism — which he apparently intends to “donate” to his presidential library after leaving the White House. (Since receiving the plane, the president and his administration have cozied up to Qatar to a remarkable degree, even unilaterally extending a NATO-like security guarantee to the nation.)

Wednesday, the president took his first flight on the plane, but before boarding, he took a little time to talk to reporters, one of whom asked how much it cost American taxpayers to upgrade the jet.

“Well, it cost very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way,” Trump responded cryptically. He added, “Frankly, we couldn’t build a plane like this.”