Glory days of Trump's gold-plated 757 seem
far away as plane sits idle at a sleepy airport
By Kate Bennett and Pete Muntean, CNN
Updated 0254 GMT (1054 HKT) March 20, 2021
Washington
(CNN)Trump's
personal Boeing 757 was always the crown jewel of his wealth -- the ultimate
sign that he had made it. He's used it as a backdrop for sleek photo shoots,
campaign rallies, VIP tours, for shots of him eating his Big Macs and KFC,
plated, with a knife and fork. Trump loved to show it off -- the customized
cream-colored leather seats, gilded bathrooms, the seat buckles layered in
24-karat gold.
But today it
sits idle on an airport ramp in Orange County, New York, about 60 miles north
of Manhattan.
One engine
is missing parts. The other is shrink-wrapped in plastic. The cost to fix and
get it flyable could reach well into the high six-figures, a price-tag Trump
doesn't appear to be dealing with right now. Though the current state of his
finances aren't public, the Covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the
hospitality industry home to so many of his businesses.
Trump's 757 sits idle in
March 2021.
Flight
records accessed by CNN show the 757 hasn't been flown at all since
Inauguration Day, when Trump's use of Air Force One ended, leaving him to less
showy modes of transport.
A
representative for the Trump Organization did not immediately return CNN's
request for comment as to why the plane is not being used, nor has been fixed
-- and whether or not Trump intends to get it in flying shape anytime soon.
A CNN camera
crew saw Trump's plane parked on a fenced-off tarmac at the small upstate New
York airport on Wednesday, about an hour and a half drive from Trump Tower. The
choice to leave it outside at a northeastern airport, exposed to the elements,
has baffled aviation experts who spoke with CNN. They note that it's just a few
hours' flight to warmer, more arid climes. Snow, rain, and moisture can lead to
metal corrosion of the airframe and the engines -- hard to detect, and, in
severe cases, catastrophic. Large airplanes are typically stored for long
stretches of time in the desert southwest, where the dry climate makes
corrosion nearly impossible.
Trump's 757 is seen at
Stewart Airport in New York in March 2021. The right engine wrapped in plastic,
while the left engine appears to be removed.
Trump
rarely, if ever, admits to losing power. With the 757 apparently out of
commission, Trump is left with his much smaller corporate jet, at least for
now. According to flight data, Trump's 1997 Cessna 750 Citation X has been in
semi-regular rotation for the last few months, often flying between Palm Beach
International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in New York.
It was this
plane Trump flew on when he made his first post-presidency trip back to
Manhattan earlier this month. "The small jet isn't his favorite,"
says a former White House official who frequently flew with Trump on both
planes. With just eight seats, the Citation such as the one Trump is using, is
a tighter squeeze and far less luxe than the 757.
"It
also doesn't have his name on the outside," the source said, noting the
gigantic Trump name that the 757 bears across its front section. The Citation
does have a small Trump family crest on the fuselage. That's a downgrade for a
man who likes to paint his surname on just about everything he owns, from
hotels to bottles of wine.
Plane as
campaign draw
When Donald
Trump bought the used Boeing 757 airplane in 2010 from the late Microsoft
billionaire Paul Allen, it swiftly became his favorite toy, as he liked to tell
friends. Though it was already almost twenty years old, for the next decade,
Trump lauded his plane. He was picky about who got to fly on it, where they
would sit and how they could move about, says another frequent flier. None of
the regular travelers were willing to speak on the record for fear of
retribution.
In 2015,
just two months prior to announcing his initial candidacy for President, Trump
invited some journalists in Iowa aboard for an impromptu press conference --
then chastised them for almost messing up his baby.
"There's
one guy very dangerous with that one camera. I'm talking and I'm watching that
camera which is about this far from the ceiling, knowing that my day is going
to be ruined if they ruin the ceiling," said Trump according to a Des
Moines Register report.
A table set for a meal
aboard Trump's 757.
Later, a
journalist dropped a piece of equipment onto one of the plane's specially
designed mahogany coffee tables. When the journalist apologized, Trump said,
"You're sorry? I'm sorry, too."
When he hit
the campaign trail in earnest, the 757, aka "Trump Force One," became
as much a promotional ploy as billboards or TV ads. Look how successful I am--
was the message Trump was sending to voters, sometimes parking it behind the
stage at his rallies.
Trump's
flash-and-cash boasting worked all the way to the White House, with many of his
supporters lured by the informercial-like, almost hypnotic reel of planes,
limos, homes, glamorous women, gold, and quasi-celebrity. His gilded,
high-flying brand may be the most valuable thing he owns. The New York Times
found his personal brand strategy to be "the most successful part of the
Trump business," as part of their September review of Trump tax returns.
A money suck
But, like
many Trump accoutrements crafted for the purpose of marketing, the reality of
the giant jet was different behind the scenes. It was a money suck, a plane
past its prime with decaying mechanics and exorbitant storage fees.
"Flying
that thing was so expensive," says the former senior official. "I
don't think people realized that just to get it up in the air and make one stop
was literally tens of thousands of dollars."
The cost to
fly a Boeing 757 is about $15,000 to $18,000 per hour, according to CNN
aviation analyst David Soucie. But that's when the plane can actually fly.
Trump's 757 is nowhere near flight ready, according to an experienced pilot who
saw it this week. The source declined to be identified.
"It's
an older engine and parts availability is becoming a challenge so operating
costs go up significantly," says Soucie. "Most airlines are retiring
the 757 since more cost-effective models are now available."
During the
presidential campaign, Trump talked up the powerful Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofan
engines on his 757, saying he personally insisted on having the 500-mph engines
installed. "They're special, they're really popular, the most
popular," said Trump in a 2013 documentary about the plane. In reality,
the engines are standard on this particular model of Boeing 757.
A private cabin in Trump's
plane.
Soucie says
right now, at least one of the plane's Rolls-Royce engines appears in need of
major maintenance. "Fixing one of those engines would easily cost six
figures," he says.
The life of
a jet engine is limited by the hours in operation and what's called cycles—a
measure of how many times an engine is turned on. Once the engine reaches a
number of hours or cycles predetermined by manufacturer and the federal
regulators, an inspection of the engine's critical "hot section"
becomes required by law.
Before Trump
purchased it from Paul Allen, the plane served as a commercial airliner in
Mexico in the 1990s, according to a 2016 Times story on the
plane.
"If the
wear is serious, that could lead to replacing the engine and that could cost up
to a million dollars," says Soucie.
The pricey
extravagance of the jet may now be too much for Trump's finances to handle. His
net worth has taken a tumble over the last few years. Trump is personally
liable for debts and loans totaling $421 million, according to the New York
Times reporting. Most of that debt comes due in the next four years. Some of
his best-known business ventures report losing millions, if not tens of
millions, of dollars year after year, according to the Times. That includes
golf courses that have racked up at least $315 million in losses over the past
two decades. The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.
A Bloomberg
News report this
week estimates that Trump's net worth has fallen by $700 million since February
2016, from $3 billion to $2.3 billion.
Trump could
use money in his political action committees to pay for the plane upgrades, or
other expenses, experts say. "PACs are often used as slush funds,"
said Paul S. Ryan, an expert on campaign finance and a top lawyer at Common
Cause, a good governance non-profit.
"Campaign
finance law doesn't require PAC money to be used for political purposes,
leaving open the possibility that Trump could use PAC funds to pay for private
plane repairs."
The
disclosures for Trump's newest PACs aren't due for some time, so it's unclear
if he has spent any of that money on maintaining the plane.
But he has
used campaign money in the past for travel. When running for president in 2016,
for example, Trump used his campaign funds to pay travel expenses to a
Trump-owned entity called Tag Air. In all, he spent $8.7 million with Tag Air
in that cycle, according to a CNN
tally at the time.
Trump could
always just sell the plane. It's what he typically does with spare pieces of
real estate, including a home adjacent to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, which just
this month listed for
$49 million, $31 million more than what he paid for it in 2018. But unlike real
estate, planes are depreciating assets, no matter how much gold plating they
contain, and Trump's 757 is not worth nearly what it was when it rolled off the
assembly line in 1991.
The 2013
Trump-sanctioned documentary about the plane says Trump paid $100 million for
it. Even if he paid far less than that, similar 757's are currently up for sale
at a market price of about $7 million - $10 million.
Fabrics from
Paris
Regardless
of what he paid for it, Trump didn't cut corners on customizing his new plane.
"He was
very involved in the design," says Eric Roth, president of Long
Island-based International Jet Interiors, a company that outfits the private
jets of some of the world's wealthiest individuals. "We met a number of
times to go over exactly what he wanted."
It was Roth
whom Trump initially contacted when he discovered Allen's plane was up for
sale. "I flew out to Redmond, Washington, and inspected it, and told him
what I thought," says Roth, who got to work on the six-month overhaul to
deck it out almost immediately after Trump closed on the purchase in 2010.
A standard
757 seats about 228 passengers; Trump's was tricked out for just 43, with a
master bedroom, guest suite, dining room, VIP area and galley. "Anything
metal on that plane's interior -- lights, seat buckles, handles, latches, knobs
-- we did in 24-karat gold plating," says Roth, adding the price for that
alone came to around a "quarter million."
Roth said he
and Trump discussed "what will make this fitting for Donald Trump,"
and "how do we make it regal?" They landed on cremes and gold tones,
and mahogany and suede paneling.
"He
went with very classic materials and designs, things that are timeless,"
says Roth.
A gold-threaded,
embroidered Trump family crest on the headrest of a chair
The fabrics,
which Roth described as "more formal," were flown in from Paris. The
Trump family crest was embroidered into the headrests of the seats with gold
thread. Roth said Melania Trump had nothing to do with the design and décor of
the plane. It was Trump's previous personal aircraft, a 41-year-old Boeing 727
he put up for sale in 2009, that then-Melania Knauss used as a backdrop for her
British GQ magazine spread, with the infamous photograph of her lying nude on a
rug on one of the jet's banquettes.
The sale of
the 727 paved the way for the purchase of the 757; in 2010, Trump's popularity
via "The Apprentice" and "Celebrity Apprentice" was
peaking. He wanted a private plane commensurate with his level of success.
Trump
certainly doesn't need the 757 to get around. the smaller, lighter Citation
would actually make it easier for him to slip in and out of smaller, more
private airports. The Citation is also faster and cheaper to operate than a
757. An aircraft charter broker tells CNN the smaller Trump plane would cost
about $5,000 per hour to fly.
A bedroom in the plane.
Thus, the
fuel and crew and such are significantly lighter in terms of financial
responsibility, the footprint a better fit for someone who may be tightening
purse strings.
But Trump
has never really been a less-is-more kind of guy.
The former
official questions whether there will ever come a day when Trump would take a
commercial flight. "Honestly? I think if it was a choice of flying on a
commercial plane or staying home, he would just stay home."
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