Renewable Revolution

Ron Wagner, USAF pilot in Presidential Wing at Andrews, airline pilot, aero engineer
Updated Jul 28
I was an Eastern Air Lines pilot who mostly flew the Washington-New York-Boston Shuttle.

On the way to bankruptcy they wanted to sell the famous Shuttle to Trump. Those pilots could go to the new Trump Shuttle. It seemed like my flying career would be saved by this visionary billionaire.

THEN I MET HIM

He met with some of us. It wasn't one-on-one, but it was behind closed doors, and in there he creeped me out. What that visionary saw in us suddenly seemed to me to be like what a boa constrictor sees when he spots prey in the jungle.

The beady eyes. The tiny mouth, which I could imagine being on unhinged jaws like a boa, that could swallow us whole.

I declined, Eastern shut down, and I never flew professionally again.

TWO YEARS TO BANKRUPTCY

The former Eastern employees who went were all friends. They got spiffy new uniforms. The planes got spiffy new interiors and Trump paint. He said he was “going to run the Shuttle like a diamond, like an absolute diamond.” I'll always remember those words shooting out of that little round mouth.

But within two years, that entire diamond was sunk, like Rose dropping hers in the Atlantic at the end of Titanic.

Well, not quite the entire diamond: Trump took the only life boat in the form of one Boeing 727 for his personal use. He also kept something like $10–12 million personally.

Everyone else went to the bottom. 


FIVE PRESIDENTS IS ENOUGH FOR ME

I had been a USAF pilot in the Presidential Wing at Andrews AFB in DC. Before I met Trump I had met and flown five US Presidents. It's been a little badge of honor my whole life to be able to tell people that.

And now, when I meet people I could say I've met six US Presidents.

But I still say five.

NIXON THREW HIMSELF UNDER THE BUS

I’m sticking with five, even though one of those five was Nixon!

I flew him on his first official trip after his two-year exile. His eyes showed he was a beaten man. After that trip I always had some respect for him because—yes he made some serious mistakes—but when it came down to America or him, he took one for Team America and disappeared.

In 21st Century jargon, “Nixon threw himself under the bus.”

Trump is gladly throwing all 320 million of us under the bus as he boosts his ego and net worth. Well, not quite ALL 320 million. After all, there is that one percent of one percent that will profit from the tax cuts he wants.

https://www.quora.com/Have-you-ever-spoken-with-Trump-one-on-one-behind-closed-doors