But the thought of gathering "intelligence" from Trump made me

Why bug his plane? He pretty much just says whatever he wants regardless of what secrets he shouldn't be sharing publicly.

stupid fuck is always shooting off his mouth, a mixture of gibberish and classified info - it never fucking ends

He wants his cut if somebody is bugging him. It wouldn't surprise me to discover Putin told him where to place listening devices on that 90 minute phone call.

Dementia Donald is so out of it most of the time who knows what he is telling people and what they are telling him.

But educator speak for intelligence and spy/military terms for intelligence are very different.

Information probably -- smarts, not a snowball's chance in hell

Just buy a membership to Merde Lardo and use the bathroom.

You'll find every piece of intelligence you ever wanted there.

it's not like they were hired for their intelligence and competence

... that the flight controls could be remotely disabled and sent into an uncontrolled nosedive. Or that the countermeasures (if any ever existed) could also be disabled. The on-board wifi could have had a key-logger that captured text messages and passwords.

What a fucking waste of money... all for an fragile little ego.

Killing off Trump means he's replaced with someone who won't be our frenemies' lapdog.

On the other hand, the keylogger system is a definite possibility, as are satellite feeds that send any audio from inside the plane to a collection bird for relay to the Kremlin.

More like keeping it from being secured here. He is convinced that this is his plane and once he is out of office, that he will just keep it.

Like a lot of other things he has done during his time in the Oval Office. I would not be surprised if he wanted to empty out the White House once he leaves.

Just as I would not be surprised if we let him.

And… It was outfitted by the highest no-bid contract.

Pathetic.

Throw a tarp over it.

IIIRC, on 9/11, when they had Shrub up in the air for hours and hours in AF1 due to not knowing how many planes were co-opted as weapons, there was a fuel jet in the convoy with the fighter jets escorting AF1.

nor does it have defensive capabilities.

I hadn't thought about that. The renovations probably look terrible! Just like the Reflecting Pool and the rest.

How much tax payers dollars went into this fucking albatross

That should be IMPEACHABLE shit.

It was a completely unnecessary and expensive expenditure.

An albatross or a Potemkin Chicken.

Trump is a traitor. God knows what intel he’s already given away. I would suggest a case could be made for Aileen Cannon suborning treason.

Y'know. The big movie. Something about a horse.

Perhaps there was a health scare.

...which also by nature need to emit some sort of signal--RF, acoustic, EMF, optical--which should make them easier to detect than merely intelligence gathering sensors.

My suspicion is that the hurried retrofitting of the aircraft means that it does not posses the full defensive capabilities of the VC-25A and someone finally lost enough sleep over it to grow a spine after seeing how effective Iran has been with the very limited resources they still have. Believing a handheld rocket of some sort could bring down the underdefended Graft Force One is likely what caused this panic.

It is also interesting that "passengers on the aircraft were instructed to keep their windows down during the flight, and according to flight data, the plane carrying the president did not turn on its tracker until it was over the Black Sea near Istanbul." ( https://abcnews.com/Politics/secret-service-urged-trump-depart-turkey-air-force/story?id=134606227 )

Why did passengers have to keep their window shades down?

Ah..Quite frankly, Donald Trump would be on the Jet....which means there's zero Intelligence.

(And Panetta misspoke a bit about the plane being built in "another country". It was built by Boeing in the US. The interiors, however, were installed in another country. Minor point. But, still.)

Aircraft procured for presidential use are monitored throughout the entire manufacturing process, or are thoroughly inspected to the point of nearly being disassembled before they're certified for use by POTUS. Most of the lifetime of the Qatari 747 so far has been spent outside of this monitoring window. So, nothing can be trusted. Most of a presidential aircraft is essentially a SCIF for open discussion of sensitive topics.

Behind the panels and under the floors are wiring bundles so numerous and complex, anything could be hidden in there - bugging devices, cutters, poisons, acids, communications, anything. It would be impossible to properly inspect all of it without removing it all and going through it strand by strand. Did they do that?

Every electronic box in the plane - from avionics to the panels that operate ovens - could have circuitry in them, right down to the circuit board - or even chip - level, that could be used to monitor, commandeer or disable that device or the whole aircraft. There are hundreds of boxes in the plane. Did they remove every one and test them?

There could be secret fuel cut-off valves installed in the engines that could be remotely actuated.

Did they inspect every cubic inch of the fuel tanks? Could be explosives in there. Or capsules of corrosive agents that could release over time and eat the fuel tank walls or contaminate the fuel at random times causing engines to malfuntion over the Atlantic.

Tracking devices can be as small as a sugar cube. Have they inspected every interior volume - the wings, the vertical stabilizer, the engine nacelles - for the presence of questionable or unknown devices? This is a true needle in a haystack.

Has the plane been swept for radioactive materials? Pellets of - or even dust treated with - polonium could be placed anywhere to gradually drag down the health of anyone on the plane.

The Qatari AF1 is a literal Trojan Horse. The military was stupid for even considering letting US leaders fly on the plane. I'm surprised they could find legit military pilots willing to fly it.

otto pilot.

I don't know, but it's possible. You've outlined a lot of stuff that could have happened ... and there's a lot the secret service doesn't know about this plane.

If there really is a Chump "double" he would have had to disappear as soon as the real Chump arrives. But that wouldn't have been too hard, I don't think. All the TV cameras were pointed at the real one, not at the "double."

would have covered what you posted, which, btw, shows a good deal of imagination. Glad we have you on our side.

The true amount is classified but it could have been nearly a billion. Snopes.

of course this is much more serious

Why was it OK to fly the play INTO Turkey, but not out?

Why was it OK for Trump to board it in the UK for the trip back to DC?

replacement parts, never refurbished parts.

It will be loaded to the gills with spyware.

found the "communications" devices.

I seriously doubt that its has very little defensive or evasive systems on it. Iran, Turkey's neighbor has lots of big fat missiles that would love a juicy target. They have already shown their ability to reach far away targets, and are itching for revenge.

Rising hostilities with Iran required President Donald Trump to shift to his original, more advanced presidential aircraft.

Whether it is a Reflecting Pool, the economy, or a 747, Donald Trump is shockingly incompetent at making things work.

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) 2026-07-09T13:16:07.073Z

on the airplane

I think he overheard someone in passing mike drop how easy it would be to shoot down the plane. That all the security was known. Trump was then afraid to fly in it. I doubt he'll ever fly in it ever again. He will try to have it flown to Maralago when he finally gets out of our house... you know... like something to put on the back 40 bragging rights. But fly in it? I don't think hes got the guts after what hes done to the ME.

because Trump resumed in the gold shittter from the UK home. Why would they be concerned about bugs while in Turkey, but not elsewhere?

One logical explanation is that there was a relatively minor maintenance issue that was easier to deal with in the UK than in Turkey. There are all sorts of systems on a 747 that don't prevent it from flying, but might reduce the redundancy or comfort in flight.

Another logical explanation is that some of the exotic communication systems that are unique to an AF1 aircraft were not working correctly, and they were more concerned about that in the Turkey region than across the Atlantic.

A third plausible explanation is that in a rush to get this plane into service, they left off some systems to be installed later. But in the course of this trip, they picked up intelligence that suggested this lack of systems put the aircraft in more danger than normal.

I don't think "bugs" were the real issue. It was everything else.

See map of what they were dealing with -



Note the location in proximity of countries engaged in active hostilities.

That giant flying white elephant plane has zero defensive capabilities.

Later in the OP article is this quote -

and that is disappointing considering he was supposedly qualified to be an Intelligence head.

I agree with you that there was most likely a judgment that this particular aircraft was is jeopardy flying OUT of Turkey.

OK, why wasn't it the same danger FLYING IN THERE?

The most likely explanation is that they picked up some intelligence in real time that convinced them the risk was high.

OK, but why was the risk HIGHER with the Qatar plane than with the other AF1 aircraft?

It could be the paint job, but that is mitigated by flying out at night.

My guess is that Trump was so obsessed with showing off this grift plane that they never had time to install all the electronic systems and counter-measures

Remember who you are talking about. I expect it took a mass push of staff to get him off that plane after he ignored warnings for using it at all.

And insulting Panetta is bullshit. Neither he nor any other non-MAGat previous agency head is going to blurt out top secret defensive capabilities about the AF1 fleet other than what has been generically made public.

He is not doing anything useful by lying about the situation.

He was in Congress for 16 years going back to 1977, then headed up OMB (the same agency run by the loon Vought) under Clinton, then was both CIA Director and later DOD Secretary under Obama.

He knows of what he speaks.

Specifically:
1) Trump forced them to put this plane into servive long before it was ready.
2) That it lacked important defense and evasion systems that should have been installed.
3) That Trump insisted on flying to NATO to show off his golden toilets in the sky.
4) That the staff intervened after receiving specific intelligence of a planned attack.

I said every one of these things yesterday, 12 hours before NYT reported it. Panetta said none of this.

Frankly, it was all pretty damned obvious, so I have no idea why Panetta would try to say something different. Maybe he was never as qualified as you think he was. Or maybe it is just more of the usual Beltway Insider arrogance.

What?

MS Now invited Panetta to appear on Tur's Wednesday (July 8) show. Here is the segment with 4 guests including Panetta -

Bugs are obviously NOT the issue or else he wouldn't have re-boarded in the UK.

The issues are as I stated the and the NYT subsequently published.

There are probably bugs embedded in that plane to, but it doesn't matter. Trump will tell anybody anything they want to know for the right price.

(and the maintenance contractors) has ANY idea about the exact situation regarding that foreign plane.

Your speculation is in no way authoritative unless you are actually actively working in the administration in the Office of the White House and/or in aligned security/military associated with presidential travel.

So it's silly to keep arguing that you know more than those who have actually worked for the government in high level security positions and have even been on AF1.