President Donald Trump's obsession with airplanes goes back years, and his requests for features on his current personal plane left one designer double-checking his demands, Forbes reported Tuesday.
Over the weekend, several outlets reported that Qatar was gifting Trump a $400 million private jet to serve as his new Air Force One until the end of his term. The plane would then be given to the Trump presidential library.
Forbes' piece recalled that after Trump's first term, he announced he'd redesign his Boeing 757-200 that he'd purchased in 2011. Trump flew on Air Force One throughout his first term and did not use his private plane. After the term, he returned to using the personalized plane.
The report said that many executives prefer smaller, more "nimble jets." However, the report said Trump prefers larger planes.
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“From an ego standpoint, hey, you land with an aircraft like that, you can interpret that the way you want," aviation expert George Reenstra told Forbes.
It’s just another way of showing off who has the most power, said communications consultant Alan Marcus, who has flown on Trump’s plane several times.
The report recalls that around 14 years ago, Trump was shopping around for a new jet to replace his Boeing 727. He reached out to International Jet Interiors President Eric Roth, asking if he'd check out the plane and take photos before he purchased it. Ultimately, Trump bought the plane and then spent "roughly $37 million on" a redesign, said Forbes.
“As a developer, you’re going to have plenty of architects and designers on staff or certainly at your disposal,” Roth told Forbes. “And in this case, it wasn’t that at all. It was just him and myself."
Among the demands, Roth recalls, was Trump's signature "abundance of gold" as well as marble.
"Even the seat buckles received a 24-carat coating," Forbes reported. Trump also asked for a "big TV, with a great sound system, to watch movies." He also reportedly loved the idea of having his Trump family crest stitched into the headrests, the report continued.
But one request Roth found "unusual."
"An area in the galley for Oreos,” Roth recalled to Forbes while laughing. “I said to him, ‘Mr. Trump, really?’ He goes, ‘I love Oreos.’”
Trump "once told Rolling Stone that Air Force One is 'a step down' from his 757 'in every way.' But that’s pure delusion," recalled Jeff Wise for New York Magazine's "Intelligencer" last year.
"Sure, Trump’s plane is big, and it has a shiny new paint job, but from a true private-jet aficionado’s point of view, those are about its only virtues. 'It’s like if you wanted to brag about having a massive yacht, so you bought the Staten Island Ferry and converted it,' says a private-jet broker who prefers not to be identified. 'That’s not something that people who really know yachts would find impressive,'" he added
NBC News reported on Monday that Trump continued his complaint about Air Force One.
“You look at some of the Arab countries and the planes they have parked alongside of the United States of America plane. It’s like from a different planet," said Trump.
