“The security implications of accepting a private plane from a foreign nation as #AirForceOne & the resulting ethical concerns a gift of that sizes creates were already significant.”But it was more worrisome, Shaheen said, that “this administration is diverting funds from the nuclear modernization budget to finance costly renovations to this plane.”
In doing so, she said, “we’re weakening our credibility to fund a vanity project for President #Trump.”

Only at the #Pentagon could someone reprogram $934 million & expect no one to notice. The coffers were refilled with the passage of the budget reconciliation bill several weeks ago, #budget officials say.

“The more we learn about this deal, the more disturbing it becomes,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, who serves on the #ArmedServices Cmte.

When asked last week, the #AirForce said it simply could not discuss the cost — or anything else about the plane — because it’s classified.

(For collectors of such bureaucratic evasions, yes, the Air Force is willing to discuss the cost of building a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles, but not the cost of renovating #Trump’s aircraft.)

“We believe the actual retrofit of that aircraft is probably less than $400 million,” he said.

If so, that would be a bargain. But engineers & #AirForce experts who have been through similar projects have their doubts that it can be accomplished for anything like that price. Members of #Congress express concern that #Trump will pressure the Air Force to do the work so fast that sufficient security measures are not built into the plane.

In testimony before #Congress in June, Troy E. Meink, the #AirForce secretary, said that he thought the cost of the #AirForceOne renovations would be *manageable*. “I think there has been a number thrown around on the order of $1 billion,” he said. “But a lot of those costs associated with that are costs that we’d have experienced anyway, we will just experience them early,” before Boeing delivers its two Air Force Ones. “So it wouldn’t be anywhere near that.”

But the #Pentagon doesn’t want to part with a third of the #nuclear “triad,” & the silos & their command posts are big employers in the rural West.

They serve another function in the second #Trump admin. The modernization program has proved to be the perfect thing if you were determined to hide how much you are spending on an airplane, especially one equipped to order up a nuclear strike, if needed.

The project was first sold to Congress as a $77.7 billion program to replace all 400 #Minuteman III missiles, complete with launch facilities & communications built to withstand both #nuclear & #cyber attack. By the time #Trump came back into office, that figure had ballooned by 81%, to $140 billion & climbing, all to reconstruct what nuclear strategists agree is the most vulnerable, impossible-to-hide element of America’s nuclear deterrent.

It was those delays that led #Trump to look for a *gift*.

#AirForce officials privately concede that they are paying for renovations of #Qatar’s #AirForceOne with the transfer from another the massively-over-budget, behind-schedule program, called the #Sentinel. That is named for the missile at the heart of Washington’s long-running effort to rebuild America’s aging, leaky, ground-launched #nuclear missile system.

Concerns over the many apparent conflicts of interests involved in the transaction, given Trump’s government dealings & business ties with #Qatar, have swirled since reports of the gift emerged this spring. But #Trump said he was unconcerned, casting the decision as a no-brainer for taxpayers.

“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” Trump said in May. “I mean, I could be a stupid person & say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’”

…#Trump’s plane probably won’t fly for long: It will take a year or two to get the work done, and then the #Qatar gift — improved with the latest communications & in-flight protective technology — will be transferred to the yet-to-be-created Trump presidential *library* after he leaves office in 2029, the president has said.

[So basically Americans are footing the bill for Trump’s“free” private plane]

In response to a Reuters request, #Aqua1Foundation last month provided an unsigned statement, saying: “At this stage, we are not disclosing additional information beyond what has been publicly shared.”

It added: “Aqua 1 is backed by a group of long-term, mission-aligned partners & led by #DaveLee & a global team with deep expertise in web3 & digital asset infrastructure.” Aqua 1 did not respond to a detailed set of questions….

Yet a review by Reuters of corporate registries, #Aqua1Foundation’s digital profile & other public information reveal almost nothing about the source of its capital or the person it named as its founding partner, #DaveLee.

Reuters could not find a way of contacting Lee directly. An Aqua 1 press release, which was published on Reuters.com as sponsored content, listed an email for a person named Dora Lee as a media contact.

The company, which went public via special purpose acquisition company, or #SPAC, last year, now trades with a market capitalization of around $4.9 billion.

The stock nearly doubled in 2024 as #Trump won the US presidential election in November. As of Friday's close, the stock was down nearly 48% this year.

#TrumpMedia said the buyback will be funded *independently* & will not affect the capital already earmarked for its #bitcoin #treasury initiative.

In Feb, #Trump Media reported a $400.9M net loss for the full year on just $3.6M in annual revenue. The company cited legal fees & a revised advertising revenue-sharing agreement as contributing factors.

Despite the losses, Trump Media said it ended the year with $776.8M in cash & short-term investments.

Calling #bitcoin a "crown jewel," #DevinNunes said the move was designed to defend the company against what he described as "discrimination by financial institutions" against *conservative* [fraudulent] businesses. The funds will also support the launch of #Trump-branded exchange-traded funds & other #crypto products later this year, pending #regulatory approval.

The announcement follows #TrumpMedia's $2.5 billion raise last month from institutional investors — one of the largest #bitcoin #treasury plays by a public company. The company said it would use those funds, which include $1.5 billion in equity & $1 billion in convertible notes, to buy bitcoin, with custody provided by Anchorage Digital & Crypto.com.