Politics

Trump’s $108M Jet Probed Over Embarrassing Blunder

WELL-GROUNDED

The president gifted the tacky aircraft to his wife after confiscating it from former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

A photo illustration of a hand grabbing a DHS Boeing 737-8 MAX plane from the sky for PunchUp.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

Transport authorities have opened a probe into the customized $108 million jet that Donald Trump took from Kristi Noem and gave to the first lady, according to a new investigation by the Daily Beast’s sister Substack, PunchUp. The Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft boasts a luxury boudoir, a shower-sauna, a bar, and a kitchen. After Trump fired Noem in March, Homeland Security transferred control of the plane from Daedalus Aviation to CSI Aviation. The circumstances of the change remain unclear, though Daedalus’ parent company, Salus Worldwide Solutions, is currently under scrutiny as part of a broader probe by the DHS inspector general and Congress into deals struck by Noem and her former close colleague, Corey Lewandowski. Department officials ordered the jet flown last Tuesday from Louisiana to Maryland, but CSI failed to file the documentation required to enter the restricted airspace over Washington, D.C. The lapse, which wasn’t identified until the jet was already airborne, left DHS staff “seriously p----d” as they scrambled to resolve the issue, which has now been referred to the Transportation Security Administration for further investigation.

Read it at PunchUp