Trump at 30,000 Feet: Airborne Nonsense and Grounded Rights

From declaring King Charles his “wonderful friend” to fantasizing about seizing air bases, jailing protesters, and yanking TV licenses, the president’s Air Force One gaggle was a turbulence of ego

Whew. Today’s Air Force One gaggle was like watching a fog machine argue with itself.

Trump opened with courtier vibes, purring about “being with King Charles, he’s a wonderful guy,” before adding, “the artwork. I saw more paintings than any human being has ever saw and statues.” The tone was Windsor-meets-Mar-a-Lago, part statecraft, part nouveau-riche gallery tour. He insisted, “I knew him before, but now I know him a lot better,” casually casting Charles as his new pal, an awkward fit for a monarch who has spent his reign championing renewable energy while Trump spent the rest of the gaggle railing against “stupid windmills” and solar panels that “fry” birds. But the kingly reverie quickly devolved into geopolitics and domestic score-settling with all the precision of a shopping cart with one bad wheel. Asked about “regime change in Venezuela,” Trump twice insisted, “No, I haven’t,” then, seconds later, flexed his imaginary muscles: “We’re going to finish the wars. We have a couple of them going, as you know. You look at Gaza, you look at Russia, Ukraine. We’re working on that and I’m working with Congress.” And at some unspecified future “right time,” he promised he’d call a ceasefire “harsh.” Sure.

He mangled his way through what sounded like Bagram Air Base, “Bram… Bakra… you could land a planet on top of it”, to argue it should be “brought back,” because “they need a lot from us.”