After former President Trump lost the 2020 election, he no longer had access to Air Force One and his private Boeing 757 was left in disrepair. At the time I wrote that if you wanted to know when he was ready to run again, just watch his private private plane which has gold-plated everything down to the seat belts.
When he announced his candidacy for President seven years ago, he claimed to be worth $10 billion (though self-reported election filings suggested wealth one-eighth that). Yet he asked his small donors to pay for repairs on the plane, registration N757AF, which had been stored at Newburgh-Stewart airport in New York.
The plane appears to have been repaired and is now flight-worthy.
Trump’s jet has spent several hours over the last week running pattern flights above a small airport in Lake Charles, Louisiana, likely testing various updated components before heading to the Palm Beach International Airport, where it arrived Wednesday evening. Trump has previously indicated that the plane would be in Louisiana for repairs.
Oddly CNN claims that they were “first to report” that the 757, purchased from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2010 (Trump couldn’t afford to buy new, perhaps), sat at Stewart Airport – months after I covered it, sourced to the excellent Jon Ostrower (himself formerly of CNN!). The plane fly to an MRO in Louisiana on November 1, 2021.
Last month the former President ranted about dirty airports, delayed flights, and high ticket prices in a pivot from a discussion about murder rates.
Prior to acquiring this Boeing 757, for 14 years Trump, who once acquired the Eastern Airlines Shuttle, flew in a 1968 vintage ex-American Airlines Boeing 727 reconfigured with 24 seats and a bedroom, dining room, and conference rooms. Ironically he once tried to acquire American Airlines, but faced significant losses in the effort during the 1989 stock market mini-crash.
