Donald Trump is reportedly making some upgrades to Air Force One, and many Americans are not happy. Ever since his second term began, the President has made a few too many level-up decisions, including his extravagant White House ballroom plan to plaques to the former Presidents.
These controversial updates have sparked massive backlash, mostly because critics have deemed them a waste of taxpayers’ money, although Trump says otherwise.
On Thursday, the U.S. military said that a “red, while gold and dark blue paint scheme” will be used to upgrade Air Force One. Similar upgrades will also be done on smaller jets for other government officials.
President Trump is repainting Air Force One in his preferred color palette – gold, red and navy blue. The robin’s egg blue that has been around since the Kennedy Era will be painted over on all of the air crafts that serve as Air Force One as well as the jet that was donated by… pic.twitter.com/gI8sVskmG5
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 18, 2026
Although the change was recently announced officially, Donald Trump himself proposed the plan during his first term in 2018, the Independent reported.
A year later, he also shared a mock-up with the press. “The baby blue doesn’t fit with us. I like the concept of red, white and blue and the classic, and I think it’s going to look much better actually,” the 79-year-old told Fox News.
However, when Joe Biden took over, the plans were canceled, as the Biden administration deemed “it could drive additional engineering, time, and cost.” Now that Trump is back in office, the planes are also back on the cards.
But not many are happy with the news, especially when the country is already suffering fromrising living costs. On X (formerly Twitter), critics slammed Trump and his administration for using taxpayers’ money to upgrade planes.
“I can’t afford groceries,” one wrote, as the Democratic Party echoed, “Americans can’t afford groceries.”
“We just want some affordable healthcare and housing,” another commented. “We can’t afford healthcare,” one user wrote. “No one cares, except the fact that this is a total waste of taxpayers money, which is something Trump excels at doing,” wrote another critic.
No one cares, except the fact that this is a total waste of taxpayers money, which is something Trump excels at doing.
— Sinny (@sun_of_sin__) February 19, 2026
One user had a brutal take: “Conservatives will look at this and think nothings wrong. But the underlying problem of this is it’s once again trump doing useless changes to stroke his ego and leave his mark because nothing else he’s done will go down in history as positive. ‘They changed the plane because of me’ but America is worse because of him.”
Air Force One has been around since the Kennedy era, boasting its signature light blue and white design. Some people have expressed disappointment over the new design blueprint, which will add a gold stripe to a red, white, and dark blue scheme.
