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A group of Democratic lawmakers is pressing Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink for details on the Trump administration’s plan to pull funds from an Air Force nuclear modernization program to retrofit a luxury jet the president was given by the Qatari government.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Adam Schiff of California, and Reps. Jamie Raskin (Maryland) and John Garamendi (California) want answers on the plan to pay for this presidential vanity project with up to $934 million from the wildly over-budgeted “Sentinel” program, which is meant to upgrade the military’s nuclear arsenal.
A prime example of the U.S.’ excessive military spending, the program has faced bipartisan criticism for its overspending and its failure to meet deadlines. But rather than slash the program (like, say, funding for cutting-edge mRNA research and other things the administration has deemed wasteful), the administration plans to pull $400 million from it to retrofit Trump’s palatial new airplane, Meink said last month at a Senate subcommittee hearing. Meink also testified that using that earmarked money will not affect or delay the updates to the Sentinel program.
As one might imagine, the aforementioned Democrats are raising issues in a letter addressed to Meink last Wednesday:
We write with concerns about how the Air Force is managing nuclear modernization funds, including whether those funds are being raided to retrofit a personal gift to President Trump that likely violates the emoluments clause of the Constitution.
After noting that even staunch conservatives like Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Deb Fischer of Nebraska have previously raised concerns about the program being used as a slush fund for the executive branch’s pet projects, the lawmakers make the seemingly obvious point that souping up a jet for the use of the sitting president, who intends to pass it along to his official library at the end of his term, meets that description:
Now, our concerns, and those of other members, appear to be prescient as part of the Sentinel program’s bloated budget is being redirected to an unintended purpose: retrofitting the Qatari luxury jet to serve as Air Force One — and subsequently, after he has left office, as the Trump library’s private plane.
They go on:
It appears that funds for programs that the Air Force has continually claimed are among its top national security priorities are now being used as accounts for presidential whims, while the egregious lack of transparency hides the true costs of these programs from taxpayers.
The Democrats want more specifics on the cost estimates for retrofitting the plane, including whether the Department of Defense would be on the hook to pay for future modifications.
On Friday, liberal activists from the watchdog group Democracy Defenders Fund joined the pressure campaign, urging the Defense Department’s inspector general to open a probe into whether the administration has broken any laws by accepting the jet (technically given to the Department of Defense). The Defense Department inspector general declined to comment to CBS News.
And who can fault them? This jet fiasco is outrageous and appears to be the most blatant abuse of office by a president in recent memory. That the administration would pull funds from a purportedly essential nuclear program to pay for it reeks of self-enrichment and underscores ongoing concerns that the U.S. under Trump is continuing its descent into tin-pot dictator territory.