4 billion is peanuts in the U.S. budget. Trump claims he is worth more than double that. The defense budget is rife with expenditures that need to be reassessed...starting with the joke of a boat..the Litoral combat ship...vastly over budget.. poorly armed and so thin hulled that a tug boat put a crack in ones hull...all 3 or 4 commissioned so far have broken down including loss of propulsion. And the F35 is almost as big a joke.

Wonderful.

As for AF1...it is overdue for replacement and I for one care not to risk a tragedy that creates potential chaos in the leadership of the country. Even at 4 billion (total for two planes) and a 40 year life expectancy that works out to 100 million a year. It is costing 3 times that to keep that twit Melania living in Trump tower. That's right..a million a day of taxpayer money because she does not want to move to the Whitehouse. Start complaining about that instead of the cost of the plane that transports the leader of the country.

And your idea of a place to start is put the life of the President and numerous government officials that travel with him..at risk in a plane near the end of its life expectancy. Right.

Every year Time magazine announces a new person of the year, and every year a large number of people think it is actually best person of the year, complaining or celebrating.

A defence budget that Trump claims was decimated by Obama and needs increasing.

As much as I love the 747, the -200 (which they currently use a version of) is a 45 year old airframe. That is basically unheard of for commercial civilian carriers in the US, who are all already switched to the -400. Wouldn't it make sense that the President and his officials have an airframe that is at least as up to date as them, if not moreso?

It's basically just freight carriers who use the -200 these days.

Yeah, I read an article on it that suggested that this year it's more that he's 'twat of the year' than anything. I mean, it had Flange and Erdogan in the running too.

This is our best and brightest, right? Christ on a bike.

Old airframe for sure...and creating serious maintenance issues. Very good rebuttal to idiot Trump here...

Donald Trump’s Air Force One Math Doesn’t Add Up - The Daily Beast

Here's a list of 747-200s still in service:

Aerospace One: 1 freight (SX-ASO), 1 combi (SX-ASC)
AHS Air International: 1 freight (AP-BIO)
Cargo Air Lines: 1 combi (4X-ICM)
Caspian Airlines: 1 freight (EP-CQA)
Iran Air: 3 passenger (EP-IAG, EP-IAH, EP-IAI), 1 combi (EP-ICD)
Jet Star: 1 freight (ER-BBS)
Kabo Air: 3 passenger (5N-DKB, 5N-JRM, 5N-MAD)
Kalitta Air: 2 passenger (N715CK, N793CK), 4 freight (N704CK, N746CK, N794CK,* N795CK*)
Kam Air: 1 freight (4L-TZS)
Midex Airlines: 3 freight (A6-MDG, A6-MDH, A6-MDI)
Orient Thai Airlines: 1 passenger (HS-UTC)
Rayyan Air**: 2 freight (AP-BKI, AP-BKS*)
Saha Airlines: 2 freight (EP-SHB, EP-SHH)
Saudi Arabian Airlines: 1 freight (HZ-AIU)
United States Air Force: 2 VC-25A (82-8000, 92-9000)
Uni-Top Airlines: 3 freight (B-2448,* B-2450,* B-2462)
Veteran Avia: 1 freight (EK74799*)
Vision Air International: 1 freight (AP-BIV)

The majority of these are freighters, not passenger aircraft. But you know, if Trump wants to use Iran Air as an example to follow, it gives you hope for international relations in future, right?

That pretty much proves it is overdue.

Agreed

As far as I know the VC-25 doesn't even have a glass cockpit, just the standard one retrofitted with some LCD displays. You can't keep slapping on modern bits to an old frame.

Plus, the 747-200 still requires a flight engineer so that's one (more likely two or more for reserves on long flights) additional member of the crew that is required for every trip. A modern glass cockpit requires only a captain, first officer and their reserve(s).

You have to remember that this is the publication that made Adolf Hitler 'Person of the Year'

Also Stalin and Putin. It's the person who has had most impact during the year 'for better or worse'. Under that criteria, as the person who sucked the most oxygen this year and who's ego made sure he wasn't more than 5 minutes away from being seen or heard from at any one point, El Trumpo certainly comes out on top.

I see they mocked him with faint praise by describing him as “president of the divided states of America.”

And Trump responded “When you say divided states of America, I didn’t divide them,” he told NBC. “I’m not president yet, so I didn’t do anything to divide.”