Tag: air force
Donald Trump

'A Very Bad Idea': $400M Qatari Airliner Gift Unnerves Republicans

'ABC News on Sunday reported President Donald Trump is poised to accept “what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government” — “a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar” to be used “as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation.”

According to ABC News, “the gift is expected to be announced next week” after “lawyers for the White House counsel's office and the Department of Justice drafted an analysis for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluding that is legal for the Department of Defense to accept the aircraft as a gift and later turn it over to the Trump library.”

As AlterNet reported Sunday, the proposed gift — which aviation industry experts told ABC is estimated to value "about $400 million” — stunned Democrats and journalists alike. But, as news of the plane plan proliferated on social media Sunday, even some Republicans were concerned about conflicts of interest arising from the proposal.

“I’m sure the podcasters who are deeply alarmed by foreign influence will be all over this,” National Review editor Philip Klein wrote Sunday on X.

Call me a crazy RINO neocon, but I think it’s bad for the President of the United States to accept a $400 million ‘gift’ from an Islamist regime that funds terrorist organizations that murder Americans,” conservative writer and podcast host Ian Haworth argued.

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson agreed.

“The Qatari government is not our friend, cooperates with Iran and its proxies, and funds terrorism and pro-terror propaganda around the world,” Erickson wrote in a tweet Sunday.

The Bulwark podcast host Tim Miller suggested Trump’s interest in receiving a gift from Qatar undermines the president’s “anti-semitism initiative.” The Trump administration has threatened funding for private universities over what it claims is a failure of universities to address rampant antisemitism on campus.

“Hamas’ sugar daddies are giving Trump a fancy plane? I guess the admin’s anti-semitism initiative has some carve outs,” Miller wrote Sunday.

National Review commentator Stephen L. Miller offered a succinct analysis on reports of Trump’s gift from Qatar.

That sounds like a very bad idea,” Miller wrote.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

President Volodymyr Zelensky

Blaming Zelensky For Ukraine War, Trump Attacks Media And Spews Fake History

President Donald Trump is victim-blaming Ukraine after Russia carried out a missile attack on civilians at a Palm Sunday celebration in the city of Sumy, killing at least 34 people, including two children.

On Sunday night after the bombing, Trump said in an interview on Air Force One that the ballistic missile attack was “a mistake" and a “horrible thing”—even though a ballistic missile attack has to be directed and thus could not have been a benign error as Trump suggested.

But on Monday morning, Trump’s tone grew angry as he blamed former President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the attack that Russia carried out, writing in one of his embarrassing Truth Social missives:

The War between Russia and Ukraine is Biden’s war, not mine. I just got here, and for four years during my term, had no problem in preventing it from happening. President Putin, and everyone else, respected your President! I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS WAR, BUT AM WORKING DILIGENTLY TO GET THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION TO STOP. If the 2020 Presidential Election was not RIGGED, and it was, in so many ways, that horrible War would never have happened. President Zelenskyy and Crooked Joe Biden did an absolutely horrible job in allowing this travesty to begin. There were so many ways of preventing it from ever starting. But that is the past. Now we have to get it to STOP, AND FAST. SO SAD!

Let’s set aside the fact that it’s sociopathic to bring everything back to the 2020 election, which Trump still says was rigged, even though it wasn’t. To again blame Biden and Zelensky for a war that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is 100% responsible for is sick and twisted—and raises questions about why Trump refuses to assign Putin any fault for his actions.

Trump dug in later on Monday as well. In the Oval Office, Trump told reporters, “[Zelensky is] always looking to purchase missiles. … Listen, when you start a war, you gotta know you can win a war. You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.”

Trump has repeatedly blamed Zelensky over Putin.

In February, Trump repeated Russian propaganda when he ridiculously accused Zelensky of being a “dictator” for not holding an election in his war-torn country.

Later that month, Trump attacked Zelenskyy in a disgraceful Oval Office ambush, in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance teamed up on Zelensky to demand he be more grateful for American aid in the war.

And on March 31, Trump threatened Zelenskyy with “big, big problems” if Zelenskyy were to back out of a minerals deal.

Trump’s change of tone on Monday over the horrific attack Russia carried out on Ukrainian civilians is likely a response to an interview Zelensky gave to 60 Minutes, which aired on Sunday night.

"I believe, sadly, Russian narratives are prevailing in the U.S.,” Zelensky said. “How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering, to understand what the Russians are doing, and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war? This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia's information policy on America, on U.S. politics, and U.S. politicians.”

That clearly pissed off Trump, who demanded CBS News lose its broadcast license for airing the segment. Trump wrote on Truth Social:

They [“60 Minutes”] are not a “News Show,” but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as “News,” and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing. They should lose their license! Hopefully, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as headed by its Highly Respected Chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior. CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Trump is angry that he hasn’t been able to end the war on Day 1, as he repeatedly promised during the campaign.

Worse for Trump is that his embrace of Putin and attacks on Zelensky are losing him support from voters.

A Gallup survey released on March 18 found that 46 percent of Americans believe the United States is not doing enough to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s attacks—a 16-percentage-point increase since December.

An NBC News poll from about the same time found that 61 percent of registered voters side with Ukraine over Russia. Yet a plurality (49 percent) thinks Trump sides with Russia over Ukraine.

“I cannot recall a moment in history when American public opinion and voters’ views of a president, as to which country they are more aligned with, have been more in conflict with each other,” Jeff Horwitt, a Democratic pollster who jointly conducted the poll with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies, told NBC News.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

U.S. Air Force basic training.

Air Force Ousts White Nationalist Enlistee After Bombshell Investigation

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

A well-known white nationalist has been booted from the U.S. military shortly after an investigation uncovered his enrollment in the U.S. Air Force and graduation from basic training.

An investigation conducted by HuffPost revealed Shawn McCaffrey's status. On Thursday, July 22, Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek released a statement confirming McCaffrey had been kicked out.

"Information brought to the attention of his command after Mr. McCaffrey's enlistment led to an entry-level separation due to erroneous enlistment," Stefanek said without disclosing any specific details.

The publication reports that as of last month, McCaffrey was still in active-duty technical training and ranked as an Airman First Class. After learning of McCaffrey's continued enlistment, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif., chair of the military personnel subcommittee, sounded off as she demanded to know what type of recourse would be taken regarding McCaffrey.

In a statement addressing top-ranking officials of the Air Force, Speier wrote:

"I will be contacting Air Force leadership to find out why this individual ― who has his own author page on a website for far-right extremists, describes himself as an 'activist,' and co-hosted a weekly podcast in which he attacked Jews, women, LGBTQ+ people, the U.S. armed forces, and many others using unacceptable slurs ― remains on active duty and under review given the very public and abundant evidence of his extremist ties," Speier said in a statement at the time.

Speier's demand comes months after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin released a memo detailing the Pentagon's planned efforts to confront extremism within the ranks of the armed forces. He made it clear no level of extremism will be tolerated.

"We will not tolerate actions that go against the fundamental principles of the oath we share, including actions associated with extremist or dissident ideologies," he wrote in a memo announcing the order.

u.s. air force

Air Force Moves Cargo Fleet To Tilt Georgia Senate Runoff

Not long after Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and replaced him with ally Christopher Miller, the Air Force appears to have made moves to place a new fleet of cargo planes in Georgia that could benefit GOP Sen. David Perdue's runoff campaign.

The Air Force's "surprise" announcement this week happened just over two weeks after Esper's termination and Miller's subsequent helming of the Defense Department. Esper was part of a slew of other top-brass Trump administration to exit after Election Day.

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