The Boeing 757 that once stood for the glitz and glamour of Donald Trump’s high-flying lifestyle now sits idle, ignored and in disrepair, CNN reported.
The aircraft with its custom cream-colored leather seats and 24-karat gold flourishes currently needs work on both engines and as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs, according to the network.
The plane hasn’t been flown since Inauguration Day, according to flight records, CNN reported, and it sits idle on a fenced-off tarmac at an airport in upstate Orange County, New York, some 60 miles from Manhattan.
The plane was dubbed Trump Force One during the former president’s 2016 campaign. Several campaign rallies were held at airports with the plane, emblasoned with his name, as a backdrop. It features a master bedroom, has a 57-inch TV, and can seat 43 passengers. The Trump Organisation posted a video tour of the aircraft in 2011. (Check it out below.)
After he was elected, Trump switched to taxpayer-funded air transportation. He now relies on his smaller 1997 Cessna 750 Citation X corporate jet, which seats nine people, according to CNN. The cost of operating his mammoth aircraft, which the Trump Organisation website has deemed his “crown jewel,” is a financial strain, a source told the network.
“Flying that thing was so expensive. I don’t think people realised that just to get it up in the air and make one stop was literally tens of thousands of dollars,” the source said.
CNN aviation analyst David Soucie estimated that operating a Boeing 757 can cost up to $18,000 an hour.
Trump and his businesses, meanwhile, have been hemorrhaging money and value, and his net worth is estimated to have dropped some $700 million to $2.3 billion since 2017, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.