The Department of Homeland Security’s latest airplane has a really acquainted, very Trumpian look.
Photos captured over the weekend at Reagan National Airport outdoors Washington, DC, present the division’s newly acquired Boeing 737 adorned with a design akin to President Donald Trump’s proposed paint scheme for a brand new Air Force One — a deep pink stripe down the center of the plane, a darkish blue underbelly and an American flag painted on the tail. Both use colours much like Trump’s personal 757, generally known as “Trump Force One.”
Beyond simply reflecting Trump’s style, the planes could have one other connection.
Open-source flight monitoring data compiled by ADS-B Exchange present that earlier than arriving within the DC space, the brand new DHS plane made stops in Ardmore, Oklahoma and Lake Charles, Louisiana. Landlocked Aviation, the same company involved in repainting Trump Force One, has an workplace in Lake Charles.
Asked for remark by NCS, Landlocked Aviation wouldn’t verify it was concerned in repainting the plane. NCS additionally reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for added particulars.
The DHS plane beforehand carried a deep gray and gold paint scheme, based on images posted on-line.
Back throughout Trumps first time period, he unveiled a new look for Air Force One, revealing 4 mock-ups of a pink, white and blue presidential plane with an American flag on the tail that he mentioned in an interview with ABC had been “all slightly different.” A mannequin of the redesigned plane was additionally displayed on the espresso desk within the Oval Office. But the proposal was later abandoned under the Biden administration as a consequence of price and engineering issues.
DHS, in the meantime, acquired an historic infusion of money from Congress earlier this 12 months to gas the president’s mass deportation agenda. Those funds have partly been used to create the division’s personal fleet of 737 jets to hold out deportations and facilitate Cabinet journey.
The Washington Post first reported that the administration inked a multi-million contract to purchase the planes.
“This new plane will serve dual missions— both as ICE deportation flights and for cabinet level travel. This plane flies at 40% cheaper than what the military aircraft flies for ICE deportation flights — saving the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars,” mentioned Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a press release.
DHS announced this month that it carried out greater than 605,000 deportations since Trump took workplace in January. From Inauguration Day via October, there have been 1,701 elimination flights to a file 77 international locations, marking a rise from the identical interval underneath the Biden administration, according to Human Rights First, which screens ICE flights.
The company has usually relied on constitution flight corporations for removals.