White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took a ride on the new plane for President Donald Trump, gifted by the government of Qatar, and she and several other White House staff posted photos from inside that prompted ridicule.
Leavitt, in particular, showed off photos of one room with books stacked on a shelf around a television. They weren't real books, though, several reporters observed. For those zooming in on the photo, the book spines read things on them like "Library" and "Art."
"Of course, a plane full of people who have never read a book has a bookshelf of fake books with titles like 'Library,'" quipped Dr. Nick Mark.
"All the books say 'LIBRARY.' Completely fake people and fake ideology," insulted an X account.
"Disappointing to see public servants wasting their time on frivolities like literacy and... Oh. Ok wait, no. Never mind. We're good," said Xianyang City Bureaucrat, an open-access classical Chinese translator.
"Shameless corruption, bragging about flying in a Flying Bribery Palace. Is this why Trump sold off US security to Iran?" commented national security expert Marcy Wheeler.
"She misspelled '$400 million bribe solicited from Qatar,'" quipped S.V. Dáte, the White House correspondent for HuffPost.
"The books are where the Qatari government hid the microphones, because they know no one will ever find them there," mocked social media intern Lee Edwards.
"What books do you read? 'I read library books,'" needled one user.
"The fake books on the Qatari-American Air Force One tells me all I need to know about this presidency," said another.
Others attacked it as "Grift Force One" while one called the administration "tone deaf."
DAR member Molly Pitcher said, "More and more people are having trouble providing basics but we are spending money on a plane, white house ballroom, Reflecting Pool[.] Its like getting a face lift when you really need open heart surgery."
One former government contractor blasted, "Yes a great day to shake down the American tax payer."


