This piece originally appeared in Rawstory and is republished with permission.
Many of us spend too much time depressed about the seemingly never-ending list of things with which President Donald J. Trump gets away. But we need to refamiliarize ourselves with the well-known dangers of what the military tends to call “mission creep,” only applied in a slightly different context, no less dangerous. If one had to summarize Trump’s “mission” from the golden escalator eleven years ago until today, it would be something like “all glory to Trump.” And yet, of late, we see the creep (all entendre intended) push toward something a little different, less “glory,” more “gaudy,” less greatness, more gauche. For a guy who now spends more time worrying about his legacy than your dignity, that creep might now result in a plane crash, but not one that smolders.
American hearts tend to pump with almost perplexing pride in the presence, or even just the image, of Air Force One. Yes, we all know that “Air Force One” is a mere call sign for any plane carrying the president, even a Cessna, but everyone knows we’re talkin’ real “Air Force One,” and that’s the powerful point. The image of that giant converted 747 landing in foreign capitols, or even El Paso, takes one’s breath away, the iconocism, the robin’s egg blue with a dash of yellow, a design strongly inspired by Jackie Kennedy (And then tragically used in one of history’s most poignant and sad moments, with her husband’s body lying in a casket in the back), the mere sight of that plane landing connotes “power,” importance, as if the entire country just landed, not just a president.
That Trump fancies himself as a “brand man” makes it all the more mystifying as to why he’d ffff… mess with an Air Force One “brand” more iconic than Budweiser. (Or at least close.)
Actually, concentrating on the notion for a moment, it is easy to see why Trump is willing to ditch “the perfect” brand in favor of… the new “Not even nice, never mind perfect.” That plane, that brand, belonged to something bigger than him, not just a nation, but the promise of that nation, a promise that, whether deserved, earned, or not, used to bring the world to a stutter, “America.” Much bigger than “Trump.”
And up with that, he will not put.
Like the White House, like our money and monuments, indeed – like the country itself, Trump believes that it is all now a reflection of him, personally, less president than king or demi-god. A new American president with a North Korean-inspired feel. Thus, a plane that conjured Carter landing in the Middle East, Reagan in Reykjavik, Bush over New York after 9/11, Obama as the black family boarding, or bringing the body of a beloved John F. Kennedy “home,” well, it had to go.
Not only did Trump need a plane that conjures Trump alone, but he alone wanted to own it, and somehow, despite the uncountable number of laws prohibiting such a laughable idea, he appears to be getting away with it. It is truly a wonder that the plane he’s about to take over, if not official ownership, yet, doesn’t have “Trump” prominently defined on its livery… yet. And here it is:
God help us all.
Beyond the fact that no one really gave any president sole permission to ffff…. mess with the Air Force One design, if one truly must do so, and apparently, he must, then why on earth not go straight to flag colors of red, white, and blue? Why pick midnight blue, gold, and burgundy, a color scheme that screams “Ralph Lauren” more than “Reagan,” another president we hated, but was maddeningly “presidential” and not “commercial.” This plane looks less Air Force One, more “modernized Southwest.”
Back to things that matter even more than color schemes – though, please – I think we all know that the design itself does matter, in the same way the Rose Garden mattered, the White House mattered, even the reflecting pool, not only did absolutely no one beyond Trump demand changes to aesthetics Americans appreciated and loved, what really matters is this: All these changes scream “ownership” and that comes with risk, even for Trump.
When I say that this plane wreck promises a nose-dive, I’m not saying pitchforks and torches forcing him to leave office, I’m talking about another drop of two approval points of the type that does actually matter. Because this country’s most powerful politicians do obsess over those numbers, and every lost foot of elevation on Trump’s glide slope matters to an entire industry built to protect Trump.
Mike Johnson is less likely to make an earnest ass out of himself defending Trump polling at 32% than 42. If Trump dropped to 26% (Not impossible if the economy suddenly gets much worse), Johnson might suddenly find himself more quarterbacking the offense against Trump than coordinating the defense. Oh, and it’s amidst polling like this when one often sees a particularly painful presidential leak from the Epstein files.
Washington DC retains ways to bite back at people who bring others down.
So now back to the plane crash. Ask Trump how much branding matters. He has spent a lifetime believing in his brand and, of course, at any given point, about 25% of Americans are willing to die for it. But a president can’t survive with 25% approval ratings, not because the Senate will suddenly impeach him, but suddenly things that were once held back, White House secrets, Epstein intrigue, side deals worth billions of dollars- things that used to be kept mostly hidden by inside loyalists, suddenly hit the front page of the New York Times.
And even though Air Force One’s livery issue is nothing – absolutely nothing, when compared to masked ICE storm troopers roaming the streets in search of anyone brown, cutting Obamacare funding, cutting SNAP funding, disenfranchising southern Black Americans, forcing “white testosterone” on everything from the military to Harvard, that doesn’t render the issue meaningless, grossly disproportional yes, meaningless? No.
The fact that Trump will tell anyone complaining, “Look, if you don’t like the color scheme, don’t worry, you can have your real Air Force One back when I step down to fully devote my time to golf and further riches, leaving this smoldering pile of scrap to President J.D. Vance, because this motherffff, this plane is mine and I’m keeping it” isn’t going to help him, indeed, that attitude alone might blow an engine on takeoff of his next project.
Because even though Americans believe we’re exceptional, we’re still people, and people are both weirdly beautiful and also just weird. This is especially true when it comes to branding that brings about certain memories, certain comfort, ask anyone at Coca-Cola circa 1990. There is a reason that the top of The New York Times font hasn’t changed in 100 years, McDonald’s still has ridiculous “golden arches,” Google became a verb, and our hearts palpitated a bit seeing that giant 747 with robin’s egg blue landed on another continent to address a major global issue. “The United F’ing States Just Arrived,” y’all.
And that’s what it gets down to. He wants it to scream “Trump just arrived,” and that’s dangerous. Even some supporters step back and think, “We liked him as president because he used to own the libs, not now it seems more like he wants to really own all of us,” and that type of thinking will cause a movement to lose pressure, and pressurization never matters more than when flying high above all the real problems of real people.
Is this going to bring him down? No. Could it unforgivably matter too much and bring his polling down a bit? Yes. Could that arrogance, that sense of ownership, that sort of fly-by of real issues upset a formerly loyal FBI agent enough to just let “slip” a document, picture, something Epstein? Yes. Could something suddenly flying on two engines cause Mike Johnson and John Thune to point out that the captain is ultimately responsible while putting on their parachutes, yep. Can all of that, added together, create a bigger blue wave? You bet. And so does it actually matter? Actually… maybe. And that’s a risk.
Meanwhile, feel free to make a joke out in the heartland to the farmer paying 60% more for fertilizer this year, watching that new Air Force One on final approach to Des Moines, and quip, “Why is the president of the Philippines interested in all this,” or “I didn’t know the president now flies Southwest- I bet HE gets seats assigned.” You’ll be surprised how many people are getting a little tired of this “I am the United States” attitude.
No, the plane itself isn’t going to crash. But nothing could matter less if the guy claiming ownership of the plane continues to risk crashing himself. There is a reason he never tried stuff like this the first time around; he had to answer to us again, and claiming ownership of Air Force One is bad branding, perfect color scheme, shitty one, or not.
It was bad then. It is bad now. And those of you who think none of this could ever possibly matter in the long run aren’t thinking creatively enough, nor big picture. Ten thousand perfect landings mean nothing when suddenly “your plane” isn’t cared for like it once was and maybe starts leaking fuel. The mission’s creep approaches an American-branded no-fly zone.
He won’t crash on a runway. But if things get bad enough, it is possible he’ll run away to avoid a true crash.
Jason Miciak is a Rawstory columnist, former editor of Occupy Democrats, author, political consultant, attorney, and single parent girldad. Please follow him on Bluesky, and he can be reached at [email protected]… And yes, he reads the comments and deeply appreciates that readers care, even when slaying a column. We’re all in it together.Â
