When President Donald Trump travels to the Middle East next week, he hopes to finalize a deal for Qatar to purchase 100 Boeing widebody jets—and for the U.S. to buy a used luxury jetliner, described as one of the most lavish in the world, previously owned by that nation’s former prime minister, to replace an aging presidential Air Force One.

President Trump has said little about the mounting aviation crisis America is facing. As NCRM reported on Tuesday, the Trump administration has seen nearly double the number of aviation-related deaths in the U.S. during the first 105 days of his administration, compared to the same time period during President Joe Biden’s first year in office.

There is an immediate crisis as well: a “communications breakdown last week that resulted in air traffic controllers losing radar and radio contact with the pilots of planes they were guiding into Newark Liberty International Airport,” which “has happened at least two other times since August, a current veteran controller told NBC News,” the network reported. “And at least eight or nine times in recent months, controllers lost radio contact with pilots flying into one of the nation’s busiest airports, said the Newark airspace controller who asked not to be identified.”

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Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates are looking to use “their aviation and defense industries to turn commercial deals into political capital,” in negotiations that could be worth nearly $3 trillion, according to Bloomberg News.

“For the Middle East governments, the commitments are a tool to show their allegiance to the White House and curry favor with Trump. For his part, the US president wants to burnish his credentials as a consummate dealmaker, while allaying concerns about the robustness of global alliances after Trump’s drastic tariff announcements last month spooked international governments and investors.”

Bloomberg also reports that an Air Force One “upgrade may figure into the proceedings in Doha. A private Boeing 747 jumbo that Trump toured in February, originally owned by a former Qatari prime minister, has emerged as an interim solution to the new Air Force One presidential planes whose nose-to-tail makeover by Boeing is years behind schedule.”

It is unclear if the jets that carry the President of the United States are unsafe, or merely old and in need of an upgrade, or where President Trump is getting the funds to purchase and upgrade the Qatari jet, which once reportedly listed for $400 million. Also unclear is whether there would be any national security issues.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that a Florida-based defense contractor has been named “to ready an interim presidential plane by year’s end, said people with knowledge of the situation.”

The Daily Mail posted photos of the proposed Air Force One replacement, noting that the Qatari-owned luxury jet boasts “leather furniture along with glimmering floors and ceilings,” which match “perfectly with Trump’s famously opulent taste in décor.”

“The conference room has gorgeous tan and cream chairs with deep cushions that are adjustable with the push of a button. The corridors of the plane are lined with reflective, gold-colored walls that are reminiscent of Trump’s design choices at his own properties such as Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan,” and more recently, the Oval Office as well.

On board is a “conference room with deep cushioned chairs that are adjustable with the push of a button,” and a “glimmering corridor inside the plane that jives with Trump’s famous love for anything and everything gold.”

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The conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, ignoring the actions of three lower courts, granted the Trump administration’s motion to allow it to proceed with the Commander-in-Chief’s decision to ban and purge all service members from the U.S. Armed Forces who are transgender.

The nation’s highest court, with dissents from the three liberal justices, ruled that President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth may begin to discharge transgender individuals regardless of performance, while cases work their way through the courts. Two federal district courts had ruled that a ban, in whole or part, on service members simply because they are transgender likely violates their 14th Amendment rights.

The two district courts placed injunctions on the Trump administration’s plan to ban transgender individuals, and an appeals court upheld one of those injunctions.

“Lower courts had blocked the policy, saying it was not supported by evidence and violated equal protection principles,” The New York Times reported. Tuesday’s ruling “will remain in place while challenges to the ban move forward.”

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But the court made clear, in what effectively was an unsigned 6-3 ruling, that the Trump administration, at least temporarily, may begin the discharge process.

The New York Times in February reported that the Pentagon believes the number of transgender service members is far lower than previously estimated, about 4200 in total. Previous estimates had come in at about 15,000.

The Trump administration has argued that transgender troops are disruptive to unit cohesion and lethality, and  President Trump “has characterized the cost of providing care as ‘tremendous.’” The actual cost, however, is around $9000 per trans service member, and totaled around $52 million over the past ten years.

The administration also “asserted that being transgender ‘conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle.'”

Critics are blasting the Supreme Court, with several stating the trans military ban will make America less safe.

“Banning transgender people who want to serve our country from joining the military isn’t just cruel—it’s stupid,” declared U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA). “Shame on Trump. And shame on SCOTUS for letting such a hateful policy take effect.”

“It’s discrimination,” wrote MSNBC legal analyst Jill Wine-Banks.

“Backward, bigoted and bad for our national security,” wrote veteran and veterans’ activist Paul Rieckhoff, president of Righteous Media. “Trump’s radical and destructive culture war on our military continues. And is unsurprisingly supported by this Supreme Court. Trump’s trans purge will remove valuable servicemembers, disrupt units and make America less safe.”

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“Absolutely shameful,” declared U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, and Iraq War combat veteran. “Trump’s trans military service ban hurts our military readiness, makes our military’s recruitment challenges even worse and disrespects Americans who are brave enough to serve in uniform. This will make our military less lethal and Americans less safe.”

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote: “I’m so sorry for all the decorated members of the military who are going to be kicked out and treated like garbage by this administration just because of their gender identity. We’re losing talented, dedicated soldiers and staff because of this.”

“Thousands of openly-trans members of the military were just given a huge middle finger by the conservative majority of the Supreme Court, who are allowing a cruel and unnecessary ban to go into effect, despite the overwhelming evidence that the ban itself is ridiculous,” wrote author Charlotte Clymer, a former spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign.

“Less than 1% of Americans serve in the military, showing remarkable honor & bravery,” observed DePaul University Associate Professor of Political Science. “Less than 1% of those are openly trans, & show the same honor & even more bravery. Open discrimination by the president & the Supreme Court must be called out. Shameful.”

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U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is facing criticism for a hyper-partisan letter she sent to Harvard University, riddled with grammatical errors and dubious claims.

In the 979-word statement, the Trump administration—through Secretary McMahon—condemned Harvard’s admissions policies, staffing decisions, and institutional leadership, and informed the nation’s oldest university, a 388-year-old private Ivy League institution, that it will not receive new federal research grants.

“Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE?” Secretary McMahon asked in the opening paragraph of her three-page letter.

“Harvard University has made a mockery of this country’s higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus,” McMahon claimed.

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“This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing ‘remedial math’ program for undergraduates,” the Education Secretary declared. “Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this ‘acclaimed university’? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?”

The Harvard Crimson last September reported that “the Covid-19 pandemic led to gaps in students’ math skills and learning abilities, prompting the need for a new introductory course.”

“Much of Harvard’s hateful discrimination was revealed, last year,” McMahon charged, “by the great work of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, and her Committee. As if it were trying to embarrass itself even further, Harvard hired failed Mayors Bill De Blasio and Lori Lightfoot, perhaps the worst mayors ever to preside over major cities in our country’s history, to supposedly teach ‘leadership’ at their School of Public Health. This is like hiring the captain of the Titanic to teach navigation to future captains of the sea.”

McMahon also took issue with “strongly left-leaning Obama political appointee Penny Pritzker, a Democrat operative,” being elected to lead the Harvard Corporation. She described the former Obama Cabinet secretary as “catastrophic and running the institution in a totally chaotic way.”

The Education Secretary also blasted Harvard for allegedly failing “to abide by the United States Supreme Court’s ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing [sic],” and for allegedly continuing “to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement. They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans.”

McMahon also demanded Harvard’s “cooperation with Law Enforcement, and reporting compliance with the Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, and other Federal Agencies.”

She ended the angry missive in a very Trumpian fashion: “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Critics blasted McMahon.

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“Did you use A1 to write this,” asked investigative reporter Roger Sollenberger, mocking the Education Secretary’s embarrassing remarks confusing artificial intelligence (AI) with the popular steak sauce (A1).

“Whoever wrote this is barely literate,” declared The Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg.

“Did a high school kid write this?” asked veterans’ activist and podcaster Fred Wellman. “You’re the Secretary of ‘Education’ and this is a chaotic mess of bad grammar and illiterate rambling. You poked the bear and you’re too stupid to even know it.”

Maya Sen, a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, wrote:

“Informing a private entity it will no longer be eligible for government contracts in part because a Democrat sits on its board.”

She added, “what’s terrible is that the administration had many natural allies in academia – professors who wanted more diversity in thought, fewer regulations governing research funding, higher & consistent academic standards, and better protections of academic speech,” and noted: “But not like this!”

“It may be wise for a private institution to have wide ideological diversity in its membership and leadership,” She also noted. “But the government may not mandate it, nor make it a requirement for applying for unrelated funding.”

Journalist John Harwood wrote simply, “this letter is deranged.”

In addition to criticism of the content, some offered red-inked corrections that appear to be major:

Dear @usedgov I found more mistakes after first read-thru. Will add more corrections later. https://t.co/AGlUZzVydf pic.twitter.com/9rx0Km5MFs

— B. J. Bethel (@BJBethelTweets) May 6, 2025

our secretary of “education” https://t.co/ds5cwk0uHl pic.twitter.com/4MR4DEydUZ

— daniel (michelle steel hate account) (@danielluo_pi) May 6, 2025

See the social media posts above or at this link.

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