The President’s Plane . . . Oh, Brother May 12, 2025 It is Corruption and a Security Catastrophe in Plane Sight. Although, from Trump’s point of view, we should be embarrassed even to be thinking there could be something wrong here. Sam Snead never turned down a gimme, Trump notes, and he was one of the greatest golfers of all time. Meanwhile, Tina Brown has a question: I predict that white smoke will soon be billowing from Trump’s ears as the global media power of the first American pope becomes increasingly evident. The ascension of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost to the Holy See feels like a brilliant celestial move by his predecessor Pope Francis to create not just a rival moral center from the U.S. to counteract Trump, but one who can draw even bigger crowds and command instant mega-headlines. That will put Trump in an immediate quandary when, for instance, Pope Leo XIV uses his voice in defense of destitute migrants. Francis too was a champion of migrants, but somehow his fundamental foreignness could not agitate Trump in the same way as Rob from Chicago surely will. Trump risks the wrath of 53 million American Catholics if he follows what will undoubtedly be his instincts and starts trashing and trolling the new pope. Will the supreme pontiff be unexpected spiritual rescue from the secular shit show of this venal, grifting presidency? But wait. Read on. It turns out the Pope’s younger brother is an all-too-worldly MAGA bro.