th<\/sup> 2025<\/i><\/p>\nThere\u2019s a word I\u2019m hearing more and more, not just from Democrats and Independents, but from Republicans, judges, army personnel, and even some in MAGAland. That word is \u201coverreach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cgift\u201d from Qatar may have been the tipping point. It was blatant corruption, a vast and ridiculous gift that was so ludicrous that even people totally undismayed by the criminality and avarice of Trump realized what a fool the man truly is.<\/p>\n
Never mind that the interior of the plane resembles an Ed Wood notion of what a 1920s Turkish bordello must have looked like. We\u2019re used to that particular aesthetic from Trump, after all. It is quite literally a flying albatross, weighed down with dross and easily brought down with a drone with a good laser on board. An albadross, if you will.<\/p>\n
In fact, it\u2019s a white elephant. It was originally commissioned in 2012 by the Qatari Royal family and delivered in 2015. The Qatari regime quickly realized it was a gaudy turkey, and gifted it to King Abdullah II of Jordan. The king flew it for a bit, and then returned it. Since 2020, the Qataris had been trying to find a sucker to unload it on. Low mileage, at least: it has only logged about 25,000 air hours, a minuscule amount compared to any commercial 747.<\/p>\n
Estimates on the cost of bringing it up to the standards of Air Force One range from $350 million to $one billion, and certainly would not be ready before 2029. One of the many rationales that Trump gave for accepting this thing was that he was mad at Boeing because the new Air Force One already commissioned won\u2019t be ready until 2029. Apparently he was so annoyed at Boeing over that that the day after accepting Qatar\u2019s Golden Turkey Award, he signed off on an agreement between Boeing and Qatar to deliver $89 billion in planes over the next 15 years. I\u2019m sure the board of directors at Boeing were heartbroken to hear this.<\/p>\n
That same day he made a deal with Saudi Arabia, that according to The Hill, \u201cincludes a $142 billion defense and security deal that equips Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art war equipment provided by dozens of U.S. firms. The equipment includes air and missile defense and air force and space advancements.\u201d I\u2019m sure this was met with considerable interest in the Knesset.<\/p>\n
One oddity in the $600 billion deal, touted as an invest-in-America thing, was the arrangement to sell 500,000 advanced Intel AI chips. The Saudis already had a vast program to develop AI technology going, and most of the chips appear to be going to the technology-poor United Arab Emirates. It\u2019s widely suspected the chips might go to China, and possibly Iran, as relations between Iran and the desert kingdoms has thawed considerably in the past year. One more thing to keep the thoroughly sandbagged Netanyahu up at night.<\/p>\n
Nobody has explained why the plane needs to be brought up to AF1 specs given that Trump is supposed to be out of office by 2029. Maybe the administration thinks Donald Trump Jr. will be president. But for right now, the whole damn thing has to be taken apart to make sure the Qataris didn\u2019t load it up with spyware, or other little malevolencies that might result in headlines like \u201cAF1 unexpectedly loses power over Israel, crashes into Knesset.\u201d What a coincidence.<\/p>\n
Whatever wet dreams Donald might have had of flying in royal grandeur over an undeserving world aren\u2019t going to happen soon, especially if Congress grows a backbone and forbids the gift\u2014which they have the power to do.<\/p>\n
And Trump would have to redo that silly interior, which is designed explicitly for the tastes of the Qatari royal family. Not a US flag or Big Mac in sight. Like most white elephants, it suffers from being tailored to a specific taste. A retired but still very popular basketball star is trying to unload his estate at 10% of original asking price because he had his name, face, and jersey number plastered all over it, and for most people \u201c23\u201d is just another number.<\/p>\n
Trump has always been mocked by his non-admirers, for his venality, his grandiosity, his feeble grasp of policy, and his over the top and often demented \u201ctruths.\u201d But now even Donald\u2019s followers are beginning to suspect that he is, in fact, a living embodiment of that Qatar plane: gaudy, ridiculous, non-functional, and widely regarded as a white elephant.<\/p>\n
Support for Trump is eroding, rapidly outside of the GOP, but now, critically, within the GOP itself. Most of what Trump is doing is stuff nobody signed on for outside of the fascists behind Project 2025, and even the Heritage Foundation libertarians are beginning to realize the stories about Donald\u2019s dementia and erratic behavior weren\u2019t just rumors but could pull him\u2014and them\u2014down.<\/p>\n
A lot of people, myself included, have drawn parallels between Trump and Hitler, comparisons invited by Trump himself, who openly adopts strategies of the vile German leader. But while Trump may recognize Hitler\u2019s strategic genius, he doesn\u2019t have that strategic genius, and is in reality just a poor Xerox of the German dictator. Even Hitler would shake his head sadly at his greatest fan. Hitler, at least, had enough sense to go mad after he consolidated power. Trump doesn\u2019t and that might be his downfall.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bryan Zepp Jamieson May 19th 2025 There\u2019s a word I\u2019m hearing more and more, not just from Democrats and Independents, but from Republicans, judges, army personnel, and even some in MAGAland. That word is \u201coverreach.\u201d The \u201cgift\u201d from Qatar may have been the tipping point. It was blatant corruption, a vast and ridiculous gift that … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Leveling Out? — Hints of a Seismic Shift”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,2330,617,2,385,2165],"tags":[2331,2335,1127,2337,2338,2332,2336,240,2333,311,586,1124,2334],"class_list":["post-1794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-psyche","category-corruption","category-history","category-humor","category-trump-impeachment","category-trump-second-term","tag-2331","tag-af-1","tag-china","tag-chip-deal","tag-emoluments-clause","tag-gift","tag-intel","tag-iran","tag-lavish","tag-qatar","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-white-elephant"],"yoast_head":"\nLeveling Out? -- Hints of a Seismic Shift · Zepp's Commentaries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/zeppscommentaries.online\/?p=1794\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leveling Out? -- Hints of a Seismic Shift · Zepp's Commentaries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bryan Zepp Jamieson May 19th 2025 There\u2019s a word I\u2019m hearing more and more, not just from Democrats and Independents, but from Republicans, judges, army personnel, and even some in MAGAland. 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