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- cross-posted to:
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The Boeing 747-8 being offered to Donald Trump by Qatar once served the Qatari royal family and has been sitting unsold for years.
The jet, a lavishly configured version of Boeing’s largest passenger aircraft, has been lingering without a buyer since being put up for sale in 2020, according to aircraft listings and aviation analysts.
John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told Forbes that giving the 747-8 to the U.S. would allow the Qataris to avoid maintenance costs that were only getting higher—with the 747 fleet shrinking worldwide and fewer mechanics available who know how to work on them.
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Trump is even bad at being bribed… 🙄
not even asking for new items, is also Used and expensive. even his older jets/planes he has is very old.
Right? Being gifted a plane is kind of a financial nightmare.
Not when taxpayers are paying for all the expenses.
If you plan on flying it yes. But something like this I bet you could rent out as an AirBnB (assuming there are beds). You also need a place to put it…
Its like “winning” a boat or car. Great, you have this thing you couldn’t afford. Now pay the taxes on it, that you can’t afford.
But also, we all know Trump doesn’t pay taxes.
What kind of country taxes prizes? Seems a bit ridiculous if you ask me.
Prizes are income, otherwise companiea would hold a raffle each month to determine your salary.
Or, and this is a wild one, or the law could give a devinition of “price” that doesn’t open it up for abuse while not taking from people who won something.
Because that will definitely not lead to loopholes.
It’s how the law is in my country (Germany) and I wouldn’t know of any loopholes here.
If you win something in a lottery or a quiz show here, as long as it’s not job related, you don’t have to pay taxes on it. If you win a million you get a million. But if you put that million into a bank or invest it in any way, you have to pay taxes on the money you earn trough that.
These types of policies are just government greed very, verrrrrry thinly disguised as -yet more- taxes.
“Oh, well done, good for you. You did all the work and you’ve won something…HA, nope, we’ve won something. I’ve done fuck all in this but I demand my percentage, where’s my cut?”
Not here in the UK. I think there are exceptions - bonuses at work are taxed, if a professional artist wins money in an art competition that’s regarded as work money and taxed. But if you win the lottery or a bet on the horses, no tax to pay.
So trump would have to pay taxes on the plane eh?
According to the rules (who knows if they are followed nowadays), the plane belongs to America for now. When Trump’s presidency is over he would have to pay taxes and stuff on it if he wants to keep it (which it looks like his foundation or whatever shell company he’s got going on will pay the taxes on that).
In general, if any gifts given to the president belongs to the country and when they leave the position, they can elect to keep the gift as a personal item if they pay the taxes for it. Otherwise the gift stays belonging to America in the archives somewhere.
Windfall and winnings are some of the most punitivly taxed gains in the US. They take a big chunk.
Good ol USA, at a high rate.
Reminds me of the time Oprah screwed her audience over with a free car
https://www.jalopnik.com/that-time-oprah-gave-276-people-free-cars-that-actually-1838106001/
Fwiw a brand new Saturn g6 would have been probably about 15k.
Most of the time, these shows allow you to take the value of the prize instead. Sounds like they could have easily come away with ~9k in profit if they just took the value.
I’m not sure the hate is warranted here. Of course, that is if they were allowed to take the value.
This is the same energy as people who buy their SO a vehicle without any input. Enjoy the new car payments babe.
It’s an a diversion, media and people are focusing on that when there’s much more pressing stuff that needs to be taken care of.
This is often the case, so I’m not disagreeing with you. But if you say that without any examples aren’t you just yelling at the clouds?
I mean… Look at everything they’ve been doing since they took power? Less ICE coverage because people are busy talking about AF1. Women rights, passing a bill that will prevent any anti AI measures, the list goes on and on
like the 20,000 soldiers?
like the rehiring of violent LEOs?
like the federalization of LEOs?
like the CDC gaining the power to arrest people within a “quarantine zone”?
nah man, I don’t see it…
Ohh, when he pays the taxes on this, that will be many millions going into our budget, right? Right?
Car salesman puts one over on the senile real estate guy.
Jesus fucking Christ… Qatar is basically a scumbag real estate agent conning an idiot into buying a condemned shack in a swamp as a “cozy waterfront getaway”, but on a colossally stupid level.
It’s the modem day white elephant. Lol
I had to do a double take. I thought your comment might have had an issue with keming…
Wait a minute… What’s modem
As long as it’s Hayes compatible.
I don’t know; what’s modem?
Beeeeeeeeeeeep.
So you’re telling me there’s a slight chance of a RUD mid-flight?
I would settle for a snafu that ends in an unscheduled remote water landing
I’ll take a flat spin due to poor placement of a solid gold toilet with a heavy McDonald’s shit dropped in it
How about just really sticky peanuts?
Trump is like a little baby who wants something he knows he shouldn’t have. Waaa. I want palace. If he thought he was leaving it 4 years he wouldn’t accept.
Why don’t they give it to him after his term is up. See if he goes for that. Promise you he wouldn’t go for that deal. :). Wonder why.
At least it exposes his selfishness and greeed which is obscene that people need to have this demonstrated given the man clearly has some serious personality issues.
Tell him that retrofitting it to AirForceOne security standards would “ruin the beautiful golden interior” so it will be better to just wait until he’s a private citizen again and won’t have to follow those stupid security rules. Meanwhile, as President, he’ll have to keep using the “little” presidential aircraft.
He might be tempted into quitting early, or at least not extending his reign. Or he’ll insist on using the unsecured plane, and maybe something catastrophic will happen over the Pacific.
he will make gaudy after they retrofit, and make them add diamonds, gold leaf, marble all in the interior, with diamond chandelier, and only gold toilets.
The current two Air Force One planes (whatever the president is flying in is called Air Force One) are the exact same model as this “gift”.
No, the VC25As are reinforced in many ways. If you mean the size, he’s the one called them small.
And yet they’re bigger, fly higher and faster, and have longer range than his 757.
That’s fair. I shouldn’t have said model. You’re right.
Kinda. It’s still all very silly and stupid, but the 747-8 is a few metres longer, and generally more modern than the 747-200b the current VC25A are based on.
He will take it with him if he leaves office.
He will XO a charity gift to the newly found “Trumps School For Governments That Can’t Democracy Good”, and use it to fly around and give intimate talks at lavish dinners (not keynote speeches. Just be at a table)
It’s still 20 years newer than the stuff the presidents have been flying around in.
I guess he finally realized that a 747 really is bigger and faster that his 757.
But number more huge!
I’m curious how they would convert this to be a functional Air Force One plane.
That aircraft is disassembled and reassembled almost entirely on a regular basis to keep it in tip top shape and find sabotage and issues, etc.
It’s also equipped specially with military defences, and of course has an onboard suite of equipment and personnel to run a war from the sky, in air refuelling, etc etc.
It’s an EXTREMELY specialised version of that very reliable aircraft, is what I’m saying.
How would they bring this new plane up to that standard, and why should they waste tax money on doing so? What’s the benefit to the nation?
It all seems ridiculous from the outside looking in. It seems that they’re just trying to appease a stupid man who thinks like a dodgy car salesman, and thus is happy to accept big dumb bribes, always getting the worst end of a deal, when the smarter people play him over and over.
…no?
How would they bring this new plane up to that standard
Spoilers: They absolutely will not be bringing this death trap up to the current plane’s standards.
This will either site on a tarmac largely forgotten about for four years, at which point Trump will try and off-load it (if he hasn’t completely forgotten he owns it). Or it’ll become one of those “never going to be finished” government vanity projects that becomes an excuse to write blank checks to Boeing for billing statements littered with “Headlight Fluid: $4k, Crank Shaft Lengthening Service: $20k” line items.
Absolute best case scenario, someone in the administration actually tries to fly in this thing before the term is complete. And we all get to laugh (or cry, depending on who it lands on) on reading the consequences.
It seems that they’re just trying to appease a stupid man who thinks like a dodgy car salesman, and thus is happy to accept big dumb bribes
That’s who Americans believe is best able to run our country. We have been kicking and screaming for the last 40 years to have the US run like a business. And what other business best exemplifies the US than Used Car Dealership?
I too think the gift is for use after his presidency, I read somewhere.
But in this times you never know.
I mean, you said it. They are trying to appease a stupid man, that’s all there is to it.
What’s the benefit to the nation?
Why do you even jokingly use a framework in which you’re assuming the current US government does anything “for the nation” instead of themselves?
And also, they’re just gonna ward off attacks with, uhm… gilded smoothie machines and massaging chairs.
Critics, however, fear that the acceptance would be unethical and even unconstitutional.
Newsweek could retain at least a shred of journalistic integrity by changing one word there:
Critics, however,
fearnote that the acceptance would be unethical and even unconstitutional.lol, the thing is a cheap old crusty mooncake :D
On a scale from the Watergate hotel room to an American embassy in Moscow, how bugged do you think it is?
Yes
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