Chris Hayes: Qatar Failed to Sell Hand-Me-Down Jet and Found a ‘Sucker’ to Pawn it Off To

HAYES: “Back in the 1990s, Michael Jordan built a nine-bedroom mansion in the Chicago suburbs. Long after his retirement, his desperate attempts to sell it became something of a running joke, as it sat on the market for 12 years. That video touting an imminent auction was from 2013, after the house had already been on the market for more than a year.And Jordan didn’t actually sell the house until just a few months ago, when he was finally able to offload it at a steep 67% discount. Now, this actually happens with really rich people’s homes all the time, because when you have limitless funds like Michael Jordan, you can build yourself a home that is very specific to your tastes and identity. It’s easy to see why Michael Jordan would want his jersey number 23 welded on his front gate. But why would anyone else want that? Does anyone else need a full-sized Michael Jordan-themed basketball court in their home, with the names of his children inscribed on the center ring? Or, for that matter, does your average multi-multi-millionaire want a putting green with jumpman-themed flags? Most people with the money to buy a super expensive house, one that expensive, will just build their own mansion with their own decor. They don’t need Michael Jordan’s hand-me-downs. Well, today, what we are now learning is that the $400 million private jet that the government of Qatar gifted to Donald Trump is the Michael Jordan’s house of private planes. It was initially designed back in 2012 for the former Qatari prime minister, but it sounds like the expensive jet was just more trouble than it’s worth. According to a new report in Forbes, ‘While many have speculated the Qataris have offered Trump the luxurious plane to curry favor with the famously transactional president, there may be a simpler Rationale: they just don’t want it anymore. The royals have failed to sell the plane, which was put on the market in 2020. Giving it away could save Qatar’s rulers a big chunk of change on maintenance and storage costs. Making Trump happy would be an added bonus.’ See, it turns out no one wanted to buy Qatar’s hand-me-downs, with Forbes noting the massive, highly customized planes with idiosyncratic interior decorating are not easy to sell. One aerodynamics expert telling the outlet, ‘The market is incredibly illiquid for a jet like this.’ In fact, the planes are so difficult to get rid of that one aviation blog actually called it way back in 2020, all right? When the Qataris first put this jet up for sale, ‘I can’t imagine Qatar will find a buyer for this plane. So one has to wonder who this 747-8 will be gifted to.’ Well, looks like Qatar finally found a sucker to punt it off to.”