Source: The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner
“A signature complaint from conservatives trying to dismantle government is that it wastes taxpayer dollars while providing nothing of value. I await their condemnation of Donald Trump, who has pilfered just under a billion dollars from a secret Pentagon account to pay for the retrofitting of the gold-plated ‘gift’ airplane he accepted from the government of Qatar. When Qatar made the gift in May, Trump pitched it as a cost-saving measure. ‘I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,’ Trump said. ‘I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’’ But documents provided to Congress reveal $934 million that was covertly shifted from a Pentagon account earmarked for the modernization of America’s ground-based nuclear missiles. The money was moved to an unnamed classified project that budget experts have identified as Trump’s new vanity plane.” (07/29/25)
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-07-29-air-farce-one-when-gift-becomes-grift/