Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Trump’s bribe plane faces fresh scrutiny from dogged New York Times

 

Trump’s bribe plane faces fresh scrutiny from dogged New York Times

 https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/27/800075750/media/trumps-bribe-plane-faces-fresh-scrutiny-from-dogged-new-york-times/

Trump’s bribe plane faces fresh scrutiny from dogged New York Times

by Lisa Needham
Staff
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Staff lay a carpet on the tarmac before President Donald Trump exits Air Force One upon arriving for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, July 7, 2026.
Staff lay a carpet on the tarmac before President Donald Trump exits the new Air Force One upon arriving for the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 7.AP

There are plenty of reasons to ding The New York Times for its coverage of Donald Trump, but credit where credit is due: When it comes to reporting on the president’s bribe plane, they are not taking their foot off the gas.

Despite the Trump administration’s copious efforts to stop the paper from covering the ongoing debacle, the Times dropped genuinely jaw-dropping new reporting about the misbegotten misadventures of your taxpayer dollars at work sprucing up Trump’s new ride. And they rolled it out in a one-two punch right after the administration was forced to drop the subpoenas it had issued that were transparently designed to make the paper think twice about continuing to report on the bribe plane’s foibles. 

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in flight on Air Force One after landing at U.S. Air Force Base at RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, Eastern England, Wednesday, July 8, 2026.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in flight on Air Force One after landing at U.S. Air Force Base at RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, Eastern England, on July 8.AP

You’ll recall that Trump could not have been more excited, or demanded more attention, for the inaugural flights on Bribe Force One, the plane gifted to him by Qatar that taxpayers paid to fix up so that Trump can take it with him when he leaves. But Trump only got one week with his bribe plane before it was grounded, so while he got to take his cool new ride to Turkey, he didn’t get to fly it home. 

The initial report from the Times didn’t specify what, exactly, led to the decision to swap the plane, but their updated reporting found that U.S. officials received a credible threat that Iranian proxy forces were targeting Trump and the new Air Force One. However, it doesn’t appear that the threat was about the bribe plane specifically, but rather whatever plane Trump was traveling in. 

The fact that the administration solved this simply by swapping back to the old plane kind of highlights that the bribe plane was not ready for prime time. That’s a somewhat curious state of affairs given that we’d just been divested of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to upgrade the plane—dollars which presumably should have given it the same features as the existing Air Force One. 

The Times helped solve a little bit more of that mystery on Saturday, and the administration is no doubt howling over it. It turns out that Trump was so eager to get the bribe plane off the ground and have it looking snazzy that he just skipped over installing major security features on the refurbished jet. The New York Times found that the new ride doesn’t seem to have a lower-level exit, where the president can be more easily moved in and out of the plane in a high-risk situation; lacks the same backup power capacity as the existing Air Force Ones; and whoopsie, skipped out on the advanced antimissile system. 

Hmm. Those seem like kind of big things to miss?

We also learned that because this was a different type of plane than the one that Air Force One pilots normally fly, we paid hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to buy new equipment for the pilots to train on. Oh, and also that an actual retrofitting of the new plane would have taken years, not months. 

Related | Trump’s ugly war on journalists goes airborne

The administration was unhappy enough with The New York Times’s earlier reporting on the Ballad of the Bribe Plane Swap that it subpoenaed all the reporters, sought phone records from third-party carriers, and in a genuinely unhinged move, demanded phone records from two of the reporters’ spouses and even the mother of one. The subpoenas were obvious fishing expeditions, made clear by the fact that they wanted records back to Jan. 1, a full six months before the bribe plane took flight. 

That move did not turn out super great for the Department of Justice, whose lawyers spent a very humiliating Thursday afternoon in front of a federal judge explaining that yes, they just completely ignored the binding law that requires the government to exhaust other means before subpoenaing journalists but that it was totes fine because they were going to take some additional investigative steps in the future, so no harm no foul. 

Oh, and yes, they also neglected to inform the judge who issued the subpoenas that they were for members of the press, also a no-no! But that was also fine because “later we did legal research.”

A cartoon by Pedro Molina showing Air Force One flying into a bird labeled "free press."
Pedro Molina/Tribune Content Agency

On Thursday, the judge gave the DOJ two choices: withdraw the subpoenas or the judge would quash them instead. So, the administration withdrew the subpoenas, but then had a DOJ spokesperson run to the press to whine about how mean the judge was.

“This judge’s conduct overrides clear longstanding principles and common sense — blocking the grand jury from receiving core evidence in a national security investigation,” a DOJ spokesperson said. “Make no mistake, this investigation remains ongoing, and we will pursue justice against those threatening national security by leaking classified information, a serious federal crime.”

Tough talk from a team that literally just admitted to a federal court they did not actually obtain all that cool incredible national security evidence before getting the subpoenas, but were maybe going to later. We also learned that the administration had also subpoenaed Google along with a nondisclosure order preventing Google from revealing it for a year. 

Because the DOJ is such a dumpster fire, they withdrew the subpoenas but neglected to withdraw the NDO, so Google had to go to court to deal with that. 

Meanwhile, we’re PLANEMAXXING, with the administration trying to spin this expensive cock-up into some cool thing where we should all be extremely hyped to spend more money on Trump’s plane. But also the plane is perfectly safe and great and perfect, even though not safe and great and perfect enough to fly. 

And no, you still can’t know which upgrades weren’t made, which upgrades are going to be made, or how much it will cost. Well, not until the next New York Times story drops, that is.

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  2. Comment by DrBoomer.

    It's not like they are wasting any Real American's money.

    The marks are supposed to be fleeced. That's why they were born.

    /s

  3. Comment by gkrevvv.

    Let's see... What's wrong with this picture?

    1. No self-respective, Constitution-respecting previous President would ever have accepted this gift which is so obviously a bribe.

    2) If they did accept such a gift, for their own protection, and to protect the US from the ensuing chaos should the unthinkable happen, no previous President would ever have boarded such a plane unless all the necessary precautions had been taken and protective hardware had been added including anti-missile technologies, defensive missiles, electronics hardened against possible electromagnetic pulses produced by nuclear explosions, the best possible escape equipment for the President himself, in air refueling capabilities, etc.

    In other words, EVERYTHING is wrong with this picture.

    Instead of a President, we have a toddler man boy with a new toy that he is so anxious to show off to all the other boys and girls in order to prove that he has better toys than they do, he's not mature enough to consider why carrying it through a dicey neighborhood might not be a great idea.

    He's like a child who has climbed up on a roof and is now shouting "look at me, look at me, look at me!" with no ability to comprehend that he could fall off and seriously injure or kill himself.

  4. Comment by jon6er.

    Running to the press whom you are trying to stifle is hypocrisy at it's highest level and doing it while continuously insulting judges constitutional rulings brought on by your own incompetence will not help you going forward. There should be a 'pandemic' of lawyers losing their bar licenses in the near future if we can get sanity back in the country.

    • Reply by eyesoars.

      There's already a serious pandemic of lawyers exiting the DOJ. Funny how demanding that they suspend their oath of office for the US government and asking them to commit crimes makes them reconsider career choices. Meanwhile, the DOJ is now advertising for new "no experience necessary" lawyers to replace them. In the past, positions in DOJ were plums and highly competed for.

    • Reply by gkrevvv.

      I can't help but suspect that many of those currently departing lawyers will be only too happy to sign onto any and all efforts to go after the Trump regime as soon as the opportunity arises. It will help that they have an insider's perspective.

      Meanwhile, all we have to do is look back 2 or 3 years to see what happened to all Trump's favorite "stop the steal" lawyers to see where his favorite lawyers now are going to end up. Maybe they can all go work as lawyers in Russia for Putin.

    • Reply by DrBoomer.

      The mission achieves TOTAL SUCCESS in the Justice department!!

      It's Springtime for Mobsters and 'Murica! [to the tune of 'Springtime for Hitler']

  5. Comment by Polysynthetic.

    ...and the Repugs continue to dither and clutch their....pearls.

  6. Comment by Brett Haring.

    donnie's legal team of Whine, Snivel, and Kvetch are behaving like cat in a full sandbox. Eventually, they can't cover the new crap without the old being exposed, and baby, this sandbox has been long maxed out

    • Reply by Dejah.

      You mean he left Wee, Cheatum, and Howe? Or did he just fail to pay the bills...

  7. Comment by LowAndSlow.

    Someone ought to explain to him why the bottom surface of of subsonic fighter planes were painted in light colors like light blues and white and the upper surfaces were painted in darker colors like dark blues, browns, greens, and tans.

  8. Comment by eli1023.

    Did they hire someone to get the huge pile of shit of it each time it's flown?

  9. Comment by Old Uncle Dave.

    Btibe Force 1 also lacks the inflight refueling capability of AF1, and adding that to a 747 will cost a fortune, if it's even feasible.

  10. Comment by Penciltucky.

    He says he needs the ballroom/bunker for safety when it's convenient then flies in his new play pretty without proper security. Just another day in Drumflandia.

    • Reply by Polysynthetic.

      Why not put the ballroom in the plane and make it stay in the air until he croaks.

    • Reply by Simnsays.

      You could put the arch on the top of the plane. That would be cool and really make a visual statement!

  11. Comment by chopperQC.

    Hundreds of millions for new simulators to retrain the pilots????

    They could have leased time on a simulator at one of the airlines!

    Airline pilots are probably better trained anyway, as they have to be responsible for transporting actual valuable passengers.

    And if the same pilots are flying both planes, that’s likely an accident waiting to happen if there are that many dissimilarities between aircraft that they had to be retrained.

    • Reply by eyesoars.

      It seems probable that Bribe Force 1 is a 'steam gauges' aircraft, being old and the Qataris wanting to dump it. Boeing some years back went to all glass cockpits for all their new aircraft and refitted many of their old ones, because airlines like having pilots qualified for multiple aircraft types (which glass cockpits trivially allow). It also seems likely that the extra features in actual Air Force 1 have special controls and perhaps an operator for them, which BF1 wouldn't.

    • Reply by Simnsays.

      Thanks for remembering that this was the Qataris dumping an old plane on trump. A win-win for them. He's so easy to manipulate. He's a fool and tool of the highest order.

  12. Comment by free press.

    Was cosplaying a president/Ruler of the Earth, until Iran brought him back to reality. Totally self-inflicted. The Icarus myth about hubris comes to mind, and in the case of this plane particularly appropriate.

    • Reply by Looksatsmallthings.

      Maybe the wings will melt off while he is flying in it.

  13. Comment by ThePansyBastard.

    Let him fly in the Qatari jet and just skip the upgrades.

    • Reply by Pause4acause.

      Yep that's a great idea! If the time comes up I would like the Government to repo it as soon as he's out of office. Then put a lien on his property/money.

    • Reply by gkrevvv.

      I'd suggest repeated flights over Iran to prove how tough and unafraid he is, and how thoroughly their anti aircraft artillery have been destroyed.

  14. Comment by A Noah Count.

    I'm guessing that a considerable amount of OUR tax money went, not into upgrading it so it's more secure, but to make it as "over the top" whorehouse gaudy as he's made the White House.

    • Reply by gkrevvv.

      Actually, I think it came to him as a flying palace already decked out for maximum luxury. Part of the problem is that I don't think he'd let them rip all that out to properly check for bugs and install the needed new upgrades.

    • Reply by A Noah Count.

      You could be right about it being "over the top" gaudy enough to suit him.

  15. Comment by eli1023.

    They should've let him fly it home slone

  16. Comment by Plunky Bluester.

    That plane is garbage. The Qataris were trying to sell it for years, with no takers, before they ‘gifted’ it to Lumpy. And it’s clearly not suitable for official government use. Therefore, I think we should insist that he keep it when he leaves office. But with one stipulation. He needs to pay for it, remitting the full retail value along with the costs of any and all upgrades that were made back to the people of the United States. We don’t want the plane, we just want to make him pay for it.

    But I don’t think we should just stop there. We need to create an official entity dedicated to investigating all of his violations of the emoluments clause. As well as all the grifting that he and his family have done to enrich themselves. A real ‘Fraud Squad’ to get to the bottom of it all and ensure that all of it is paid back in full. And if they refuse, or claim not to have the money to do so, then have as many of their assets repossessed as necessary until the full value has been redeemed.

    The corruption of this administration has been staggering, both in its size and brazenness, and I think that the Democrats ought to be running on the issue of putting an end to such abuses and holding those who have committed them accountable for their actions.

    • Reply by sfbob.

      It would be a sort of lose-lose situation. You know as well as I do that Trump doesn't pay for anything if he can possibly avoid it. I agree he should pay for the plane, plus all of the related expenses, but if the government allows him to walk off with it at the end of his term the government will spend decades trying to collect money from him. If they tell him that he can have it when he pays for it, he'll just leave it sitting, collecting dust and maintenance/storage costs at government expense until he departs this plane of existence.

    • Reply by Plunky Bluester.

      Fair point. One thing he does indeed do well is drag things out endlessly in the legal process. But even though the SCOTUS has helped him considerably in that regard by given him a cloak of protection against any real enforcement for his multitude of crimes, the fact remains he is not long for this earth. And his offspring, et al, have no such privilege. Once he’s gone, they inherit whatever is left, and the courts could absolutely claw back anything they can find if rulings stipulate as much. They’ve benefited immensely from being his heirs, so they can be the ones to pay the price of justice that Trump managed to avoid. That can be their legacy.

    • Reply by CrystalHR.

      I like your real "Fraud Squad" Idea. And I would add to it, that it should be like a jury type selection without the lawyers, and politicians are not allowed to be party. Somehow pick say 5 people from each of the states and territories. Present the evidence before them (individually, so they're not all together in one presentation that could be 'spun'. Put them behind a one way mirror so they don't know the make-up of the 'jury'. Pool all the results and do a major "United States Citizens against the Administration' lawsuit, naming all parties involved.

      I know crazy, but at least the people would speak.

    • Reply by sfbob.

      I was going to say something snarky about Trump's possible demise but perhaps it's best not to venture there. His heirs definitely should pay and one can hope none of them has a mentor like Roy Cohn to teach them the finer points of evading justice, either in the criminal or the civil sphere. Between the two of them I don't think Eric and Don, Jr have enough brain cells between them to worry about. Their attempts at diversion through insults and smears are pathetic at best. Ivanka has managed to stay quiet and probably intends to stay that way. As for Barron, I fear that in the end he's going to be the one to most resemble Daddy Dearest but still he won't be able to pull it off.

    • Reply by BSFinkel.

      Donald wants to keep the plane when he leaves office and have it housed at his "presidential center". If the plane eventually has all of the security equipment that Air Force One has, I am not sure that a private citizen would be allowed to keep it and fly in it. Another thing - I assume that the Government has gone through the plane with a "fine-toothed comb" to ensure that there are no wiretaps installed in the plane.

    • Reply by gkrevvv.

      I guarantee that they did not. They would have had to tear it down to the bulkheads to do so, which would mean they would have been working on it until after Trump finished his second term.

    • Reply by ColoTim.

      I'm worried about the billions that Jared and Steve Witkoff are making off with. They are going to be hiding that stuff as best they can and they have learned from Don and his accountants.

  17. Comment by 1BQ.

    "Inside the Rushed Effort to Get Trump His New Air Force One" is paywall-free at https://www.pressreader.com/usa/boston-sunday-globe/20260726/281655376860516. The lead author is from the Times' investigations team, so the piece doesn't mince words the way it might if the political hacks like Maggie Haberman took the lead.

    " Pentagon doc­u­ments show that those Boe­ing jets must undergo a series of major struc­tural changes to be part of the pres­id­en­tial fleet. Holes must be care­fully cut into the fusel­age to build a lower entry­way, allow­ing the pres­id­ent to exit and enter in less secure envir­on­ments. An “autonom­ous bag­gage load­ing” sys­tem has to be added to reduce the reli­ance on for­eign ground crews.

    Hun­dreds of miles of elec­trical wir­ing and elec­tronic com­pon­ents have to be shiel­ded from an elec­tro­mag­netic pulse, such as from a nuc­lear weapon det­on­a­tion.

    The offi­cial planes also require a second small engine, known as an aux­il­i­ary power unit, to be installed near the rear of the jet to serve as a backup for com­mu­nic­a­tion sys­tems and other vital elec­tron­ics gear. They also need some of the most advanced com­mu­nic­a­tions equip­ment and what the Pentagon has called a “self-defense sys­tem.”

    But trump didn't care - until he attacked Iran and made himself a target for them. Now he cares a lot - and we the taxpayers are paying for it!

    pressreader.com
    PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions
    Digital newsstand featuring 7000+ of the world’s most popular newspapers & magazines. Enjoy unlimited reading on up to 5 devices with 7-day free trial…

    • Reply by northcountry21st.

      "doesn't mince words the way it might if the political hacks like Maggie Haberman took the lead." Doesn't seem like she's mincing words these days - the book "Regime Change".

  18. Comment by dgm42.

    The real scandal here is that Trump is spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars to upgrade this plane which, 2 1/2 years from now is to be tired and parked at his library in Miami.

    Hundreds of millions of dollars to satisfy his vanity for 2 years.

    Where are the republican deficit hawks? Why doesn't somebody at CNN (or whatever) ask one of them how they justify the expense?

    • Reply by gkrevvv.

      What's worse is that much of the equipment that needs to be added is top secret, security-related stuff that can't safely be left in the hands of civilians. It will all have to be ripped out before he takes possession of the plane to prevent Russia or China from getting their hands on it.

  19. Comment by aceoclubs.

    They gave it to him because it was too old and outdated even for a second tier Qatari prince. It's used clothing, like that shirt at Goodwill.

  20. Comment by indianobserver.

    Why are they upset that the NYT cares about Trump’s security? It should totally soothe his bleeding narcissistic wounds that people in his administration cared enough about the possible lapses in his safety to leak the details of how the Qatari plane was lacking.

    Can’t the DOJ spin this to make him feel better and avoid so much judicial egg on its face?

    • Reply by PissedGrunty.

      Because they are pointing out what anyone with half a brain could figure out... which naturally excluded Donald.

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