To quote the famous sports philosopher Lee Corso “Not so fast my friend!”
The mainstream media’s hostility towards President Donald Trump is beyond absurd and usually gives their overlords a free hand to create abject propaganda while engaging in yellow journalism against the American President as well as the public.
Why does this keep happening?
Everyone remembers the so-called “Russiagate” story right? Not really. The American public, as I so often like to say, has the memory equivalent of a flea fart in a category 4 hurricane. There is no attention span of any value, zero ability for the majority to maintain or pay attention to history, and very little desire to do anything or create a stir by paying attention which might alter the course of their lives.
Thusly the media, mainstream liberal or conservative, will mold the news to fit their daily narrative of the day.
ABC News is no exception when it comes to creating stories of questionable origin. That is why when this story popped up early this morning on my X feed, I looked at it skeptically but not surprised as Trump’s behavior invites these news stories on a weekly basis.
As I pondered this story from ABC News and saw how other mainstream media was promoting it, I had to ask myself, is this true and did we not hear a story about this just ten days ago?
First, let’s look at the key excerpts from the ABC story and review the validity of what they present.
In what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar — a gift that is to be available for use by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News.
The gift is expected to be announced next week, when Trump visits Qatar on the first foreign trip of his second term, according to sources familiar with the plans.
Bold and italic emphasis is my own. That is the very first paragraph of the story and know full well that the majority of the American public rarely ventures into a story beyond that part two portions that I emphasized are critical to the fallacy being presented. The first aspect is that this is a “gift” from the Qatari Royal Family.
Well, this author likes to pride himself on actually doing research unlike the mainstream media and if they had bothered to do any reading, this story first presented in the Wall Street Journal and then via Yahoo News on May 1, 2025 might have rung a bell:
Trump selects Qatar’s plane to turn into presidential jet as Air Force One delays
Again, not a factually incorrect statement because at one time, this was a plane that was owned by the Qatari Amiri Flight and used by the royal family. The problems begin when one sees that it is to be presented as a gift “according to sources familiar with the plans.”
The question that this author has is how can the Qatar royal family “gift” a plane that they do not own?
Wait, what?
Here is the history of the aircraft excerpted from a story on the Qatar Amiri Flight and its fleet from the UK aviation magazine Key.Aero:
A fourth jumbo has been operated by the Qatar Amiri Flight. Boeing 747-8KB BBJ, A7-HBJ (c/n 37075) was part of the fleet between 2012-2023. Registered as A7-HJA until July 2015, it was dedicated to the House of Thani’s European and American flights. It was often based in Paris, London, Los Angeles and Miami for ‘local’ flights and rarely based in Doha. It logged 40 sectors during 2023, with it’s last routings being between Doha to Paris/ Charles de Gaulle, Paris/Charles de Gaulle to Geneva, Geneva to Tashkent, Tashkent to Doha and finally Doha to Basel, after which it was sold to Global Jet Isle of Man on December 6, 2023.
In fact the history of the aircraft was also documented in the aviation magazine Simply Flight where they also confirmed the transfer of the aircraft to Global Jet:
According to ch-aviation, the aircraft in question is just over 13 years old, having first flown in March of 2012. It was delivered to the Qatar Amiri Flight a month later under the registration A7-HJA, and remained operational in this role for more than a decade. During this time, it was re-registered as A7-HBJ in July of 2015, before, in December 2023, taking on the registration P4-HBJ as it transferred to Global Jet.
In other words, the plane has not been part of the Amiri fleet for over a year. So how did President Trump become aware of this aircraft? Let’s do a quick re-visit to the original ABC story where the sentence after the quote earlier implies it was still part of the Qatari fleet:
Trump toured the plane, which is so opulently configured it is known as “a flying palace,” while it was parked at the West Palm Beach International Airport in February.
In February of 2025, a full one year and two months after it was sold to Global Jet. Just a quick reminder to the unaware, West Palm Beach International Airport is where Air Force 1 flies into and out of during the President’s trips home to Mar-a-Lago.
Needless to say the usual standard fake news ploy was inserted into the story:
The White House and DOJ didn’t immediately respond to request for comment. A spokesperson for the Qatari embassy did not respond to ABC’s inquiries.
Of course they did not respond. How does one respond to what appears to be a completely fabricated story.
Thus brings us to problem number one for ABC News and their so-called “fact-checking” team. Using the ever nebulous “sources” provides the cover for any type of nonsense they wish to be said or published. This is why I rarely if ever watch or use the mainstream media, be it for regular news or financial news, without verifying every single word they say.
Even the much vaunted Grok on X failed to do the requisite research via search engines to validate the story so please remember that AI is fallible just like any other information source; garbage in, garbage out:
Learning how to cope with rapid fire propaganda and falsehoods in this new, digital world is the only way to keep one’s sanity. I strongly encourage everyone to quit their dependency on so many sources willing to promote fallacies for economic or political purposes.
Updated in Fairness to Grok (via X):
After publishing my story, I sent this inquiry back to Grok for re-evaluation of its original output:
The full re-evaluation is at this link.
I shall remain fair and balanced with the administration and AI as long as it is willing to research and validate new findings instead of just trusting mainstream sourcing.
See politico article quoting a Qatari official