It’s amazing really to think that one man’s absence may have lurched a White House meeting from one outcome to another. But we live in the age of Donald Trump.
That’s not mean as a compliment or an insult, merely an observation. Josh Lederman of NBC News really did a superb job of digging into what was said in last week’s White House meeting with airline CEOs.
My initial thoughts were that Trump would side with Qatar CEO Akbar Al Baker, a longtime friend. Trump has lauded Doha’s Hamad International Airport as a showcase of progress and was present for a White House signing ceremony the previous week in which Al Baker consummated the purchase of five Boeing 777X aircrafts with General Electric engines. The list price of that deal was $1.8BN, though carriers routinely receive substantial confidential discounts. The deal delighted the President. Qatar is also seen as a strategic ally in helping to quell Iran’s ambitions and the U.S. military maintains a base in Qatar.
But It Was All About Bastian…
But that’s not exactly how it went down. As we would expect, Trump presided over an argument between the U.S. side and Qatari side. Per Lederman, there was a “lot of yelling”. The U.S. side had reached Trump by airing attack ads during Fox & Friends, a Fox News program the President religiously watches each morning. When the President asked about the ads, Al Baker responded in anger, calling the U.S. airlines “liars”.
You might expect Trump just to snicker, but he shot back at Al Baker, accusing him of receiving subsidies from the state of Qatar. At that point, U.S. airline CEOs must have been smiling.
And yet what Trump returned to over and over again during the meeting was Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s absence. Trump rightly noted that Bastian has been the toughest critic of Qatar Airways and Air Italy and Trump was simply incredulous that Bastian refused to attend. Delta said Bastian was on “previously scheduled travel” but provided no further detail. As I discussed last week, it was clear that Bastian simply did not want to meet with the President or Al Baker. Trump also scolded Delta, in absentia, for buying Airbus instead of Boeing aircraft.
> Read More: Did Delta CEO Chicken Out Of White House Meeting?
> Read More: Shuttle Diplomacy By Qatar Airways Impresses Trump, Roils US Airline CEOs
CONCLUSION
Hilariously, Trump also scolded American Airlines’ CEO Doug Parker for his company’s poor stock market performance during a time of historic growth…I would have loved to hear that reaction.
The “Big 3” (American, Delta, and United) find themselves in a far worse position than before the meeting. Trump’s invitation to use the Department of Transportation grievance process was a polite way of saying to go pound sand. And perhaps all of this because Bastian was too timid to attend the meeting…
> Read More:
- Dense, Dimwitted Logic From A Deliberately Deceptive Delta CEO
- U.S. Airlines Pandering To President Trump In Gratuitous New Ad
- Delta’s Victory Lap Over a Meaningless Agreement
- Qatar vs. Delta – Who Really Won?
- A Dishonest Smear in the Fight Over Gulf Subsidies
- 10 Ways Taxpayers Subsidize U.S. Airlines
- Exposed: Shameful Double Standards on Airline Subsidies
image: City of North Charleston
Actually, I think Trump handled all of this pretty sensibly, given the players and the circumstances.
as a travel industry executive and airline expert, he made exactly the right decision for all the right reasons . He even advised them if AA, UA, and DL had a problem there is a process to handle those disputes thru DoT. What the article does not tell you…is the airlines against the “big 3” which were FedEx, UPS, Jet Blue, Hawaiian and Alaskan Airlines. There are enormous legal issues with our open skies agreement that the US pursued had he supported the “big 3” which, whom BTW have much larger joint ventures and bigger investments in foreign flag carriers that it is accusing the mid eastern carriers of doing.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
It’s easy to laugh at this and feel good that the US airlines are getting exactly what they deserve (and they are), but the reason behind it going this way is still extremely troubling.
And how would you have handled it differently? You libs will criticize him no matter what…even if he takes the same positions on issues that your dear leader Obama did. TDS.
Life Pro Tip: The second you resort to pejorative nicknames for people that disagree with you, you have already lost your argument.
Maybe next time craft a well thought-out comment that provides actual substance based on verifiable facts as opposed to whatever soundbite Fox News gave you, then maybe folks will actually take you seriously. Trump Derangement Syndrome works both ways, my friend.
AdamR – How does your life pro tip explain Trump then?
Lose the argument but win the war?
Well, we could get into the electoral college and how it’s a joke and the beat-the-dead-horse discussion of popular vote and whatnot, but this isn’t a politics blog, so I’ll avoid that. But the intrinsic fact is that if your audience already agrees with you, then you’re not “arguing” by definition. When Trump bloviates, he’s doing so to hear himself talk and feed his anemic supporters, none of whom care to really engage in any legitimate polemic. Anyone with whom he’d have an actual conversation has already moved on mentally the second he trots out his droll, unimaginative nicknames for opponents.
@AdamR: how has he already lost the argument? Where is your data and facts to support that? No substance to your comment, only opinion. Hypocrisy as usual.
A. See above.
B. I wasn’t arguing/debating with WR2 because any ad hominem attack isn’t an actual discussion – it’s a manifestation of someone that’s lacking in any concrete capability to discuss an issue with facts. I don’t need facts to support my pointing out of other facts.
Also, if you’re replying to someone in this manner, you don’t need the @[username] as the blog automatically nests/indents the replies in a logical waterfall thread. Though I can infer that logic isn’t your forte given your input above, so consider this another Life Pro Tip, from me to you. Cheers, mate!
AdamR
Reminds me of a former high school teacher of mine who taught us that you can never win an argument with someone stupider or less informed than you. Anyway just feel sorry for those that argue with no ammunition.
Rob has been MIA for weeks now LMAO!
If these other Airlines did not exist do you think Delta,United, and American would have made all the improvements to international business class over the last 8 years.
Trump handled it well. The 3 whiners just need to fix their companies so they can actually compete. That’s a quite normal practice anywhere else: winning by being competitive.
Anyway good to see Delta bought Airbus. Staying away from Boeing will help Boeing to make fixing their design and reliability issues a priority.