CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 143rd Edition. The Chopper Edition.
And now it's a helipad
King Donald has spent a lot of his time this term of office remaking Washington D.C. itself. He's already vandalized the Rose Garden, the East Wing, and the Reflecting Pool. Messing with buildings is something he is familiar with, and which he fancies himself good at, even though the evidence from D.C. is that he has the taste of a 19th Century bordello owner.
Now it's a helipad. It'll be granite and on the White House grounds, and have the Presidential Seal on it.
The supposed reason is that the new Marine Corps 1 choppers are bigger, or more powerful, than their predecessors and therefore weren't working out well on the White House lawn.
The new helicopters are Sikorsky VH-92 Patriots. They are big.
Trump claims that Sikorsky will pay for the pads. Lockheed Marine, which now owns Sikorsky, has more or less confirmed that.
I'll credit some of this story as credible. These giant helicopters are really heavy, no doubt, and Washington D.C. is a swamp. It may indeed have surpassed the dent in the lawn level.
Still, there's reason for concern. Not one of Trump's major DC endeavors has worked out well. The East Wing desecration is way over the original price estimate and is likely to be torn down as soon as the illegitimate claimant to the office is out. The Rhino Lining on the reflecting pool has been a disaster and has lead to a false criminal charge against an innocent former Olympian. Just on sheer experience, there should be concern that the price here will be off, the taxpayer will foot the bill (which maybe in this instance they should) and that it'll go badly.
Moreover, the helicopters maker footing the bill is disturbing, relationship wise.
Marine Corps 1 itself is one of those things that has turned the Presidency from being representative of the people into a type of king. Eisenhower introduced it in 1957 as he wanted a quick way to get to his summer home in Pennsylvania. There's no reason that the taxpayer should have been stuffed with that. Now we've been stuck with a Presidential helicopter ever since.
Different countries, it might be noted, approach this differently. Lots of countries do use government aircraft for chief executives, but some really restrain it. Finland is one example. It has aircraft for the chief executive, but if that person is traveling long distance, they do so commercially A relatively recent Mexican president intentionally did that.
There's probably no way around this at this point, but frankly it is a bit much.
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