Trump Confirms There Are Issues With His New Air Force One After All

President Trump announced plans to “max out” the security on the $400 million luxury jumbo jet gifted to him by the Qatari royal family, suggesting that insufficient security  was indeed the reason he ditched it so abruptly earlier this month. 

“Mr. President, this plane does not have anti-missile defense systems on it. Why are you flying it?” a reporter asked Trump Sunday as he was preparing to board following the FIFA men’s World Cup final. 

“Well, it has—it has a lot, and you know it has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out. So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out,” Trump replied. “It’ll take about a month.” 

While it’s unclear what exactly the president means by “maxed out,” and whether his timeline is accurate, his answer confirms pretty much what every expert was saying about the jet from the moment he got it—that it would take time and lots of money to bring it to the security standards of Air Force One. Yet when Trump refused to fly on the jet following the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month, he told the media that it was because U.S. soldiers at a European base really needed to see it for some reason. This was his story, even though it was reported that the Secret Service advised him to take the old Air Force One as the war with Iran resumed. 

This jet—a questionable gift at best, an obvious bribe at worst—has already cost U.S. taxpayers $400 million. Trump plans to move it to his presidential library in 2029. 

Spain’s World Cup–winning team have made it abundantly clear that they did not want Donald Trump in their victory photos.

The official account for Spain’s national football league shared an altered image of the country’s celebration in New Jersey Sunday, snipping the U.S. president out of photos after he refused to leave the dais. The FIFA World Cup account also cropped Trump out of the shot, leaving only the president’s shoulder in view.

Trump handed the World Cup trophy to Spain’s team alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, after they beat Argentina 1-0. But the U.S. president then refused to leave the picture, apparently trying to run out the clock before the traditional trophy lift by chatting with the players as he jockeyed for a prime position in front of the group.

Spain’s team, however, was not having it. Video footage of the historic celebration captured several players politely pushing Trump away as they prepared for their official photograph.

Yet Trump stayed anyway, lingering beside the team even after repeated attempts by Infantino to pull him off the stage. He finally exited only after the team lifted its trophy and blew the confetti cannons in a glaring attempt to ensure he’d be included in the photograph.

His insistence on remaining in frame followed weeks of scathing remarks by Trump against Spain and its prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, over NATO defense spending. Trump has referred to Spain as “hopeless,” derided its people as “bad,” and also threatened to “cut off all trade” with the longtime U.S. ally as he ramped up his NATO disputes. In the months prior to that, he also raged against Spain after it refused to let the U.S. military use Spanish bases to bomb Iran.

None of that hostility was on display after the game, however—at least publicly. Back at Joint Base Andrews, Trump said he had “spoken to Spain” and “congratulated them on having a great team.” He also noted that he had “no tension” with the country’s leadership.

“I have no tension with anybody,” Trump remarked cavalierly.

Donald Trump’s administration has found a new way to grant ICE total impunity after a slew of deadly incidents involving federal immigration agents.

Last week, FBI agents received notice that their agency would no longer investigate claims of assault against immigration agents, sources told The New York Times.

Instead of involving the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations—a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement—would likely be responsible for investigating confrontations, according to the agency’s guidance.

The purpose of these investigations is to determine whether federal immigration agents were in fact attacked, but their findings can also be used to prosecute DHS agents who are involved in violent confrontations.

Trump administration officials have insisted that anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with immigration agents should be charged with felony assault, which is punishable by up to eight years in prison. In multiple violent confrontations between agents and civilians, both fatal and not, the government has been quick to claim that the agents felt threatened.

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security denied that any such change had been made.

“The relationship between D.H.S. and D.O.J. in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and F.B.I. will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy,” the agencies told the Times in a joint statement. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Already, hundreds of criminal cases alleging assault against immigration officers have completely fallen apart. If implemented, this guidance would be particularly concerning considering how many lies immigration officials have told about their violent confrontations with protesters and immigrants.

Last week, an ICE agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man legally in the United States, while he drove with his three-year-old daughter in Maine. The next day, a man in Florida was struck and killed by a tractor trailer while being chased by ICE.

The week before that, an ICE agent shot and killed longtime Houston resident and father of three Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while he was driving. Federal agents claimed that he tried to ram the officers—a claim that eyewitnesses denied and that has crumbled under the slightest scrutiny.

President Donald Trump and other Republicans are threatening retaliation against Canada for the wildfires ravaging Ontario, smoke from which has caused hazardous air quality in a significant swath of the United States this week.

On Truth Social Friday afternoon, the president accused Canada of “Willful Negligence,” vowing to add billions of dollars to existing tariffs against Canada to make up for the wildfires’ cost to the U.S.

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein,” the president wrote, “and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air.” Trump vowed to contact Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Trump was joining a growing chorus of angry Republicans. Earlier Friday, GOP Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio proposed a bill to slap Canada with sanctions “in response to transboundary wildfire smoke affecting the United States,” which he called an “atrocity.” Before that, three Republican congressmen representing Michigan penned a letter warning Carney to take “immediate action.”

Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada who also hails from Michigan, has sung a more temperate tune. On Wednesday, he described the more than 800 ongoing Canadian wildfires as “a shared challenge” that “demands a shared response.”

“I commend the outstanding cooperation between the United States and Canada as we confront these fires together,” Hoekstra said in a statement. “Our two governments are monitoring and sharing information in real time—coordination that reflects our partnership at its best.… This challenge knows no borders.”

Some obvious wrinkles plague MAGA’s blame-Canada narrative: A primary driver of the devastating wildfires is climate change, which Trump dismisses as a “con job.” Research shows that the United States is culpable for $10 trillion in climate damages globally since 1990. And Trump has systematically rolled back federal clean air protections while in office.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has yet more blood on its hands.

An employee at an ICE detention facility in Aurora, Colorado, shot a protester Thursday evening, Aurora Police Department shared in a written news release. The woman was hit in her lower body but is expected to survive.

The suspected shooter is Brandon Booth, a 42-year-old who works for ICE contractor GEO Group. Moments before the violent incident, Booth and other facility employees were waiting in their cars on Nome Street, reportedly unable to enter the detention center due to an anti-ICE protest, according to local law enforcement. Police say that two women broke off from the demonstration, verbally confronted Booth, took photos of his car, and walked away.

But Booth wouldn’t let them. Instead, he grabbed his pistol and fired a shot at the women, striking one in the lower body, according to the police report. He then hopped back into his car and drove away before he was caught by Aurora Police.

The department noted that additional officers found Booth in his car with his gun “a short distance away” after he fled the scene. Booth was booked on probable cause of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing, and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon.

In a statement to Colorado Public Media, a spokesperson for GEO Group acknowledged that one of its off-duty employees had been involved in a shooting. “This individual has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, and we will fully cooperate with law enforcement,” the spokesperson said.

“This is a tragedy on all fronts, and the Aurora Police Department will investigate this incident with the same commitment to transparency and integrity as we do all shootings,” said Aurora Chief of Police Todd Chamberlain. “We remain committed to ensuring an ethical, thorough, objective, and comprehensive review of this case. Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Aurora. Constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society—violence is not.”

The attack is the latest in a long string of domestic bloodshed by ICE and its contractors. Just this month, federal agents have shot and killed at least two people: Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who was killed in Biddeford, Maine, despite having a valid work permit and Social Security number, as well as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican father of three and a local small-business owner who was killed in Houston.

There have now been 11 fatal shootings by ICE agents since Donald Trump returned to office and made mass deportations a cornerstone of his second-term agenda.

In January, federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good and, days later, ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Both were U.S. citizens. Their deaths sparked national outrage and further exacerbated the local pandemonium in Minneapolis that started weeks prior with Trump’s sudden decision to occupy the city with federal agents.

It’s been over six months since their deaths, but still virtually nothing has come of the federal investigation into the extrajudicial killings. Instead, Washington has reportedly utilized its heft to stow critical evidence—such as Good’s vehicle—away from the local and private detectives attempting to hold their killers accountable.