Trump Decides Security Clearances Aren't That Important If It Gets Him His New Air Force One A Little Faster

The list of things President Trump hates is a long one that includes staying faithful to his wives, turning a profit on a casino, and weirdly enough, flying on Air Force One. The Presidential aircraft is due to be replaced soon, though, and Trump is impatient, so he sent Tesla CEO Elon Musk in to see if Boeing could speed things up. Boeing isn't exactly the company you want building your new airplane in a hurry, but one change that Musk and Trump hope will speed things up is getting rid of some of those pesky security requirements, the New York Times reports.

That doesn't necessarily mean they're pulling in the janitor to work on the engines, and at least in theory, it sounds somewhat reasonable. The changes mean "certain mechanics and others working on less sensitive parts of the planes or their components will not be required to get a special high-level security clearance, a process that has slowed Boeing's ability to hire required staff for the job." They aren't getting rid of security clearance entirely, but they won't need the so-called Yankee White clearance required for people who work closely with the President or Vice President.

It's understandable that Boeing would say it has a hard time finding workers with the necessary security clearance since you previously had to be cleared to have close contact with the President before you could work on the plane he uses. It's also not like Boeing hasn't faced delays, either. When the contract was originally signed back in 2018, the new planes were supposed to be ready by the end of 2024. Now, Boeing says they may not be able to deliver them until 2028 at the earliest. And since it's Boeing, I'm going to guess 2028 is probably too optimistic even though it's still several years away. 

At the same time, these are planes the President of the United States will be flying on. Maybe that will be Trump in 2028, and maybe it'll be someone else, but I feel like it's probably a good idea to be incredibly careful about who works on anything that touches or goes into the new planes. After all, just because you can't think of a way someone could exploit their position doesn't mean that hostile foreign governments can't. And with the delivery date still years away, they've also got time. Plus, it's not like we don't also have general Boeing quality issues to worry about without foreign agents interfering. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like we probably don't want a door flying off Air Force One at 30,000 feet.

While Trump hasn't even been in office for a full two months yet, he has a long history of ignoring security clearances during his first term. His daughter's husband famously couldn't get a top-secret security clearance when Trump originally took office, leading to him simply ordering them to give him one anyway. Sure, there were good reasons he couldn't pass on his own, but that's only a problem if you're worried about corruption. I'm sure the $2 billion that Kushner got from Saudi Arabia was completely above-board, though. Trump also made Michael Flynn his national security advisor before it was revealed that he was an unregistered foreign agent. Trump later pardoned Flynn because of course he did.

Then again, Trump just loves corruption. Wired recently reported he's taking payments of $1 million to hold group dinners, and $5 million gets you a one-on-one meeting. Oh, and he also made bribery legal again. Let's not forget that part. It isn't even good for businesses trying to expand into markets where paying bribes is more common, since they can't use the excuse that they'll be arrested to get out of paying them. It's OK, though, surely there won't be a single problem with pushing Boeing to build new presidential planes faster with workers who couldn't previously obtain the required security clearance.