Trump's New 'More American' Air Force One Is A Disgrace To The Name
"Modernism," you say.
Trump's New 'More American' Air Force One Is A Disgrace To The Name
Max Finkel
Yesterday 5:35PM
Since the Kennedy Administration, the light-blue and white jet carrying the president has been more than just transportation for American leadership. It has been a symbol of what that leadership was meant to represent. An internationally-minded, forward-thinking ethos steeped in Modernism and Internationalism. Now, though, the White House is more America First than American Century and Air Force One is getting a new look to match.
An Air Force procurement publication revealed yesterday as part of the Department of Defense’s 2021 budget has confirmed what we had been fearing for months. The next plane to serve as Air Force One, which the Department of Defense hopes to have in service by 2024, will have a new livery supposedly designed by President Trump himself to look “more American.” The new paint will mean the Air Force is doing away with the classic Modernist scheme we’ve known for decades. And frankly, I think the new one looks awful.
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You see, back when the first Loewy-liveried planes (the 707-based VC-137s) came into presidential use during President Kennedy’s tenure in office, the State Department and the office of the presidency were already working together to cultivate an image of America as a leader in all fields. It was the American Century, after all, and if the United States was going to make good on its reshaping of the world order after World War II, it was going to need to make sure everyone knew it.
The idea was to use the avant-garde as a way to demonstrate what American freedoms and values could offer on the world stage. A really excellent book called Cold War Modernists by historian Greg Barnhisel lays out the whole story: The State Department was working with world-famous Modernist architects to bring impressive, occasionally even challenging design to capital cities around the world. These embassies would hold reading rooms filled with books that critics adored as the best America had on offer but some Congressmen (Joe McCarthy among them) wanted to ban. The State Department brought modern dancer Martha Graham and jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong on tour to demonstrate that American tastes were as sophisticated as any, and they even surreptitiously published high-brow magazines for European audiences, asserting the legitimacy of American voices in left-leaning intellectual circles to tilt Western Europe away from the Iron Curtain. If America was going to face off against a comprehensive ideology like communism, it needed its own philosophical and aesthetic ethos to rally the West behind. It found one in Modernism.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
...but this REALLY pisses me off big time! The existing design, by Raymond Loewy on a commission from First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (who was never an escort or porn model), has been lauded for DECADES by both art and air enthusiasts alike.
The new design is hideous. Judge for yourselves:
Existing:
GACK! The new design:
Leave Air Force One alone!
It should be preserved as great American Art, not painted over with something designed by Donald Trump. 
Right up Trump's gold plated ally.Last edited Wed Feb 12, 2020, 06:27 PM - Edit history (1)
If you continue the blue paint around the bottom of the fuselage you have Trump's "new original" paint scheme for AF1.
Or if you turn Trump's private jetliner over you have his "new original" paint scheme.
Raymond Loewy's colors 60 years after he designed it are very elegant. Trump's are cheap and trite and unimaginative looking by comparison, IMHO.
That was likely ex-Eastern Air Lines, who had a pretty cool paint scheme in the 70's and 80's:
I agree, it is an elegant looking plane.
And it had a stairway at the back, so you could parachute out carrying a bundle of money if you wanted to, like DB Cooper. 
trəmp(ə rē. noun
attractive articles of little value or use.
cheap finery
adjective.
showy but worthless."trumpery jewelry"
I do agree that the design is predictably tacky Trump, minus the wannabe chintz.
One more term and we may face a new name for the country emblazoned on a giant, really tacky, (think his casino) sign above the carvings on Mt. Rushmore, reading:
TRUMP AMERICA, or would that be: AMERITRUMP?
His thing is to put his name on something and get residuals from the rights, so...
That may be a lampoon, but I want to be the one who thought of it so I can say that if it happens.
Changing the Kennedy colors on AF1 is just like giving the entire Kennedy family the finger.
the big question is WHY?
The only reason to change the color scheme is Trump's ego. 
