Donald Trump is envious of airplanes. “If you look at some Arab countries and the planes that have parked next to the United States plane, it seems from another planet,” he marveled on Monday. To compensate, Trump is now considering accepting a catar plane, a monarchy rich in energy that has long sought to congratate the US president. “A very friendly gesture,” Trump said.
It is also a gesture that appeals directly to the ego of a billionaire that has long preferred large airplanes, customizing too large airplanes to land in some airports instead of the most agile jets that most executives prefer. Trump’s airplanes, however practical they are, undoubtedly transmit an impression. “From the point of view of the ego, hey, you land with such a plane,” says Aviation Profession George Restra, “you can interpret it as you want.” Alan Marcus, a communications consultant who used to travel in the old Boeing 727 of Trump, interprets it thus: “It is an extension of who has the biggest penis.”
At the end of the 80s, when Donald Trump did all kinds of purchases promoted by the ego, such as the Plaza Hotel and a professional football team, he bought part of Eastern Airlines, which was in difficulties, and then turned it into Trump Shuttle, a service that connected New York, Boston and Washington, of the business the business failed, but Trump was made with one of his boeing 727 and He became his personal jet. Trump’s plane fit the time: velvety red chairs, noble wooden tables, works of art with thick frames. “It always looked good,” says Marcus. “But, for example, I had no silencers, so we couldn’t land in Laguardia after, I think it was 11 at night. And I remember the first time I was on the plane, I said: ‘What else is missing?'”
Trump, whose representatives did not respond to a request for comments, finally decided to change to a higher model. In 2008, he contacted agent Ben Sirimanne, interested in a Boeing 767. Sirimanne told him that it would be difficult to land in some places. “Then he told me: ‘Well, look for me a 757 ′,” says Sirimanne, referring to a slightly smaller model that was still too large to land anywhere. The agent connected Trump with a friend, who got him the Microsoft co -founder plane, Paul Allen, a Boeing 757 of 1991.
Before buying the plane, Trump contacted another aviation professional, Eric Roth, specialized in the design of private airplanes interior, to check it and bring photos. Trump closed the deal and started working in the redesign, investing approximately 37 million dollars on the plane. “As a promoter, you will have many architects and designers in staff or, without a doubt, at your disposal,” says Roth. “And in this case, that was not at all. We were only him and me.”
Inspired by Trump’s attic, Roth devised a design with marble, cream and abundant gold tones. Even the buckles of the seats received a coating of 24 carats. Trump wanted a big television with an excellent sound system to watch movies. He liked the idea of bringing his embroidered family in the headrest. And had an unusual request for the dining room. “A space in the kitchen for the oreos,” says Roth laughing. “I said: ‘Really, Mr. Trump?’
Trump is still owning the plane. He used the Air Force One during his first term and then, during his mandate, modernized 757, adding, among other ornaments, a prominent American flag in the tail. The Trump Force One, as the president’s followers are sometimes called, became a source of income during the 2024 presidential campaign, since the Trump campaign channeled more than 5 million dollars of donations to his business while traveling throughout the country.
Meanwhile, in Qatar, the country’s leaders have been looking to get rid of two of their three Boeing 747, each of which bought for 200 million dollars and made a VIP remodeling for more than 200 million more, according to Sirimanne, to whom the Petromarchy hired to help sell the planes. All that money left the airplanes in excellent condition, with just the type of interior that could arouse the interest of Donald Trump: many cream tones, some wood, perhaps not sufficient golden. In 2018, Catar donated one of the airplanes – which has two complete bedrooms with suite bathroom, three kitchens, an office and several rooms – to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president. “The second plane was stuck, waiting to be sold,” says Sirimanne. The Cataríes wanted 275 million dollars for him, he says. “I presented two offers of about 200 million dollars each, and they rejected both.”
Then, they devised a different plan, perhaps more valuable. “They simply decided,” says Sirimanne, “that it is better to give it to Trump than simply maintain.”
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
You may be interested: they steal instruments to the blue angels in false retainer
