America Is For Sale

Air Force One and Beyond

As the brooding darkness of night gave way to the morning’s first bursts of orange and yellow, the President boarded his plane at 6 AM on January 10, 1943. It would be the first presidential flight in American history, from Miami to Casablanca, taking Franklin Roosevelt to meet Winston Churchill. The plane was a Boeing 314 named the Dixie Clipper. It was an American plane—designed by American engineers and built by American workers, paid for by American taxpayers for the American president. The plane wasn’t a gift—in fact, it was proof of American exceptionalism, and that the United States didn’t need to rely on the highest bidder or favors to conduct its business.

Flight itself was an American invention. Just like the lightbulb, the radio, the television, the coffee pot, the sewing machine, the telegraph, the typewriter, the telephone, the dishwasher, the zipper, air conditioning, frozen food, the Atomic Bomb, the electric guitar, the personal computer, and baseball, flying on a plane was a wholly American adventure. The first planes were thought up, built, and flown by Americans. Orville and Wilbur Wright, out of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, became the first to create an airplane that achieved and sustained flight on December 17, 1903. Like so much of what made this country great, it was American ingenuity and original thinking that inspired the world again, and again, and again.

It took FDR and his fellow passengers over 50 flying hours divided across multiple legs to make it to Casablanca’s Medouina Airport. Despite the length, along the way, he and his staff realized the convenience—and necessity—of presidential air travel. Soon, another plane—the Douglas VC54C Skymaster, named the Sacred Cow—became the first official presidential aircraft. Though FDR only used it once, to fly to the Yalta Conference to help end WWII, President Truman continued its use until he replaced it with a C-118 Liftmaster named Independence, after his hometown in Missouri. Eventually, President Eisenhower used Lockheed Constellations (C-121) named Columbine I and Columbine II to fly. By 1959, President Eisenhower became the first president to travel by jet aircraft.

However, the jet was marked by a garish orange nose, purely utilitarian to make it more visible. Luckily, a new Boeing C-137 Stratoliner was already in creation, set to be ready for the fall of 1962—for the new president. Like all the planes before it, it was an American-made aircraft. However, Eisenhower’s successor, John F. Kennedy, knew that the ugly orange had to go. The Kennedys understood that flying was more than a utility. Innately, Jack and Jackie Kennedy knew the presidential aircraft projected a certain style, wholly American, that was as important as any speech or policy when it came to broadcasting the image of the United States to the world. It should project an aura that was distinctly American.

To complete the design of the new aircraft, First Lady Jackie Kennedy contacted the famed commercial designer, Raymond Loewy. Loewy had been born in France, and emigrated to New York after serving in World War I. He went on to design the Coca Cola Bottle and its vending machines; Lucky Strike packaging; and the logos for Exxon, Shell, Nabisco, TWA and the United States Postal Service, among several other designs. Soon, Loewy was in the Oval Office, sketching designs alongside President Kennedy himself, who remained intimately engaged with the plane’s new look. He wanted to project a certain kind of American class, one that emphasized civility above the brutish strength that previous military-styled planes had. After returning with a red and gold design, President Kennedy asked Loewy if he could incorporate more blue, the President’s favorite color. Soon, the design became what we know today, marked by what Loewy called “a luminous ultramarine blue,” made by American hands for an American president, working on behalf of the American people.

The aircraft and its design became a symbol of American elegance and American greatness. When an observer saw that plane, anywhere around the world, he or she might imagine that they were encountering the most powerful person ever to exist in human history—a person who hopefully, sought to use that power for the greater good and not personal gain. The observer might consider America’s sheer strength, size, and power—and the absolute impossibility that the country or its President could be intimidated or bought off by a foreign actor. In effect, Air Force One came to symbolize America’s unimpeachable strength on the world stage.

This week it was reported that the next Air Force One will be a Qatari 747. That is, the American President will travel in a Middle Eastern plane. Not only that, but the plane will also amount to a bribe, a personal gift that the president will be able to use when—or, if—he leaves office in 2029. In effect, it will be his own private jet for life, a symbol of his power, not of America’s. As the President said in a press conference, “I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’ But it was — I thought it was a great gesture.”

Later the President related the gesture to taking a gimme putt in golf, an anecdote he credited to the all-time great, Sam Snead. Snead, Trump said, would say “When they give you a putt, you say, ‘Thank you very much.’ You pick up your ball, and you walk to the next hole. A lot of people are stupid. They say, ‘No, no, I insist on putting it.’ Then they putt it, they miss it, and their partner gets angry at them.” To the President, this is literally a game. Of course, the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, approved of the plan—while failing to note that she had previously worked as a lobbyist on behalf of Qatar.

Neither the President nor the Attorney General have any pride—or patriotism. They don’t care who builds their toys so long as they get to use them and don’t have to share.

This fact alone—an open bribe to the current President of the United States from a nation with ties to state-sponsored terrorism and blatant human rights violations—is not surprising. In fact, it will be a footnote in history, and one that is far from the worst or most abhorrent violation from this administration, which continuously acts with an open disdain and disregard for the Constitution. But it gets right to the heart of the story: the Trump Administration is telling the world that America is for sale. As the President’s sons jet across the world selling access to their father, as allies get shaken down for money, and as everyday Americans get their benefits slashed in favor of the ultra-rich, it’s clear that the robbery is now happening in broad daylight. The masks are off and the cameras are allowed to roll because nobody seems to care—because there will be no consequences. If any person, business, or nation is willing to play ball—and pay up—they will be exonerated. And any person or entity that cries foul or fails to allow the administration to wet its beak will be pursued as a traitor.

So, when the observer sees the President’s new personal plane, he or she won’t think of the United States, and all the good it has done for the world even amid a myriad of mistakes along the way. The observer will think of the President and his friends—who pay to hang out with him—as they fly around the world selling access to the Oval Office, all while Americans’ quality of life continues to degrade and as our country sinks further into kleptocracy. The observer will think of Americans who have a President that casts his own people off as fools, confident that his power is derived from their powerlessness. And the observer will think about how the symbol of the United States—Air Force One—became a symbol of a President that is allowed to sell off the power and prestige of this country for every last penny, all for his personal profit. And that observer will ask, “What ever happened to America?”

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/upshot/the-man-who-gave-air-force-one-its-aura.html

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/air-force-one-trump-design-history/index.html

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-11/fdr-becomes-first-president-to-travel-by-airplane-on-u-s-official-business