President Donald Trump’s new Air Force One will remain in service, for now, after Senate Republicans blocked an attempt to prevent taxpayer dollars from upgrading the aircraft.
Democrats have spent the last year sounding the alarm over the Boeing 747-8 luxury jet gifted to Trump by Qatar over the hefty price tag to retrofit the aircraft and the security risks that it could pose in serving as the main plane for the president.
After Trump’s surprising admission over the weekend about the jet, which was unveiled as the latest addition to the Air Force One fleet by the White House last month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to halt any taxpayer funds from flowing to the project.
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The administration estimated that upgrading the aircraft, which already has a base value of $400 million, could cost up to $1 billion.
“The luxury jet may have come wrapped in a bow for Donald Trump, but it came with a massive price tag for the American people,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Trump is asking taxpayers to fork over an estimated $1 billion to retrofit, and max out his flying palace, so it can meet the security standards of the existing Air Force One fleet.”
“That, of course, we already paid for,” he continued. “Americans can’t afford gas, can’t afford groceries, can’t afford their electric bill. But Trump thinks they can afford to fly him in style.”
Schumer tried to forcefully pass his bill, Presidential Airlift Security Act, Wednesday afternoon, which would require that no Department of War funding may go to the purchase, modification, restoration or maintenance of an aircraft previously owned by a foreign government.
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And it comes after Trump, after pressure from the Secret Service, opted to fly back to the U.S. from Turkey in a different plane than the new Air Force One because of a lack of proper security enhancements, like countermeasures for heat-seeking missiles.
Trump told reporters on Sunday, when asked why the deterrence systems weren’t visible on the new plane, said that the plane, “has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out.”
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Trump, and told reporters on Monday that while the new Air Force One is “perfectly safe for the president’s travels,” it was slated to receive additional upgrades and enhancements in the fall that would keep the plane on the ground for a month.
“During that time, the president will fly on the old Air Force One,” she said.
Schumer’s gamble was promptly blocked by Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who argued that the legislation was more far reaching than just halting taxpayer dollars from upgrading the Qatari jet, and hamper the country’s capabilities in the face of a nuclear threat.
“Unfortunately, this legislation would also apply to a different aircraft, the Survivable Air Operations Center aircraft, or SAOC,” Fischer said. “Those aircraft were actually purchased from Korean Air. So this legislation would hamper a crucial program that ensures presidential safety in the event of a nuclear war.”
She argued that the SAOC played a crucial role in the nation’s planning in response to a nuclear threat — Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications, known as NC3 — and that Schumer’s move would “significantly harm” the country’s key nuclear deterrent.
“This is the plane that will command and control our nuclear weapons on America’s worst day. We cannot play these political games with the NC three,” Fischer said.
