Trump Wants Fancy Plane as Americans Face Want

By Sue Kientz

President Donald Trump’s continuing insistence on accepting a huge, luxurious 747 airliner, a 13-year-old hand-me-down from Qatar’s royal family, as a replacement for Air Force One, became top news(1) this past week as transiting Venus (7 Aries), representing in material terms high value items, luxury, riches, things that cost too much, was square (90 degrees, a real challenge) his Mercury (8 Cancer)(2) and opposite (180 degrees, another roadblock) transiting dwarf planet Makemake (9 Libra). This concern with new transportation (Mercury) became an obsession for both Trump and media outlets. It wasn’t just the richness of this “gift” from Qatar’s Emir that would then be donated to Trump’s future presidential library (therefore becoming his, something prohibited in the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments clause). There is another big snag — the plane lacks the high-tech features (Makemake) like electromagnetic protection for the behemoth plane to withstand a potential nearby atomic detonation, super unusual (again Makemake) abilities to refuel in flight, nimbly avoid missle strikes, or be guaranteed free from listening devices (all high-tech Makemake), to name a few of the “better than luxury furnishing” details the plane lacks.

There are further money concerns as Venus, now at 12 Aries, is moving to square the U.S. Sun (13 Cancer) and deny him this gift as more arguments against the plane are made, like the cost of adding the “Air Force One”-like capabilities, estimated at almost a billion dollars and unlikely to be complete during his term. Meanwhile, two new Boeing Air Force Ones that have been on order, while delayed, are still in production and to cancel them (one or both) would also be expensive. 

This is a bad time for Trump to demand rather personal high-cost expenditures, as Congress struggles to pass its so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which notably includes $800 billion in reduced spending for Medicaid that would threaten health coverage for millions of poor Americans. The cuts are needed to finance an extension of the 2017 tax cuts and other tax relief promised during the 2024 campaign, with the majority of refunds benefiting the super-wealthy, for a grand total of $5 trillion over the next decade.(3)

If all these proposed benefits shuffling from the very poor to the super rich weren’t enough of a “bad look” at this particular time that the president wants a $1 billion refurbishment for his gift plane, there’s also the president’s plans for a long-desired military parade in Washington DC, now scheduled for the 250th anniversary of the Army on June 14 that also coincides with Trump’s 79th birthday, with the celebration cost estimates running as high as $45 million.(4)  If that seems like a lot of Venus-related issued and difficulties, it sure is. This is not just due to the transit of Venus moving square Trump’s personal Mercury (and now sesquiquadrate his Mars at 26 Leo, as he is now angry at both opposition to his plane idea and Republicans blocking the ‘beautiful’ bill), and the square to the U.S. Sun mentioned above. This increasing focus on monetary matters, which also looks to impact large numbers of the country’s constituents, will continue to be a top issue because transiting dwarf planet Eris (25 Aries), representative of Other People, concerns for one’s community, especially those who are often disenfranchised,(5) is square the president’s natal Venus (25 Cancer). This conflict between “beautiful” things (beauty, another Venus theme) that Trump wants and demands, especially if they are expensive and spending funds on them will impact the least able Americans (e.g., the working poor, disabled, immigrants, symbolized by Eris), is not going away soon. Eris is at the farthest point in its orbit around the Sun and therefore moves slowly, and by mid-summer will appear to stop and move backwards(6) in motion at a considerably stressful point for the president, that being exactly square his Venus, to the celestial minute.  

Title Image credit: Boeing 747-8 image: Aktug Ates (GFDL 1.2 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html> or GFDL 1.2 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html>), via Wikimedia Commons; Venus icon Arial typeface; little Eris icons watching from below drawn and amassed by author.

Notes and References

1.  Haberman, M., E. Schmitt, and G. Thrush, Trump Is Poised to Accept a Luxury 747 From Qatar for Use as Air Force One, 11 March 2025, The New York Times,  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/us/politics/trump-qatar-jet-gift-air-force-one.html
2. Trump, Donald J., 14 June 1946, 10:54 a.m., Queens, NY (Birth Certificate), https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Trump,_Donald
3. Freking, K., and L. Mascaro, Trump’s ‘beautiful’ bill spans 1,116 pages. Here’s what’s inside it, 15 May 2025, ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/wireStory/trumps-beautiful-bill-spans-1116-pages-inside-121854094
4. Watson, E., and J. Walsh, Army anniversary parade on Trump’s birthday could cost up to $45 million, 16 May 2025, CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-military-parade-birthday-45-million-dollars/
5. Kientz, Sue. “Eris, the Discomforting Other” September/October 2014 issue, Astrological Journal, pp 35-40; https://moreplutos.com/articles/Eris-SueKientz_AstrologicalJournal-Sept-Oct2014.pdf
6. All planets including dwarf planets can appear to move retrograde, or backward in degrees as observed from Earth, due to the position of Earth sometimes moving faster than other bodies, so the other planets seem to drift backwards in the sky. Sun and Moon never appear to move retrograde.

For more details about the angles or relationships between planets, see Lynne Hyde’s “Astrology Basics,” 12 November 2024, ANS, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/astrology-basics/