Anderson Cooper has blasted Donald Trump over his new Air Force One, the latest gift from Qatar. The CNN host called out the President’s claim that the plane was free and did not involve taxpayer funds.
Anderson Cooper slams Donald Trump for accepting AF1
CNN host Anderson Cooper recently took aim at President Donald Trump for accepting a $400 million Boeing 747-8 from the Qatari government. The luxury jet has been upgraded to serve as Air Force One (via The Daily Beast).
Speaking with reporters about the plane, Trump did not specify how much the jet’s upgrade cost taxpayers. POTUS, instead, argued that it was “very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way,” before noting that the plane was a gift.
On Wednesday night’s Anderson Cooper 360° show, the host tore into Donald Trump for claiming that the jet was free. “At best, it’s a loaner to the White House and the country, meaning American taxpayers are paying plenty for it,” Cooper noted.
“Just like with the ballroom, several hundred million dollars to bring it up to Air Force One standards, according to the Pentagon. Taxpayers get the bill for a loaner, and the President gets a keeper from Qatar,” he added.
Cooper then showed the audience a clip of Trump ripping into Hillary Clinton for accepting a $1 million donation to the Clinton Foundation from Qatar in 2011, during the 2016 presidential debates. “It certainly did not look good, and then-candidate Trump knew it,” the host said. “He knew that even the appearance of impropriety matters. What’s more, he seemed to understand back then that gifts to public servants do not come with no strings attached.”
Later in the show, Cooper said, “This has been the norm for presidents in both parties for decades, for matters involving a whole lot less than a $400 million jumbo jet.” He concluded, “And again, it is possible that this President cannot be moved even by such absurdly valuable gifts. You might believe that. If that’s what he is asking the country to believe, he’s asking them to cast aside all the same suspicions that he himself has raised, all the insinuations he has made, and all he has said about any politician not named Donald J. Trump.”
