One of the many sacrifices of civil service—low pay, thankless toiling for others, living in Washington, D.C.—is that you can’t fly in your own helicopter anymore. At least that’s true of our current president, Donald Trump, who can only fly in Marine One, the official military helicopter, instead of in one of his reported two branded Trump-copters. It’d be great if he could fly in one of his own whirligigs, but there’s a whole safety protocol in place when you’re president that forbids it. It’s a real bummer, and of course we honor what Trump has given up so he can service us by daily pledging fealty to him and his beautiful family.

But just because Trump can’t fly in his helicopters doesn’t mean he can’t show them off. Just this weekend, down at Mar-a-Lago (affectionately referred to as White House South by people who don’t mind incredible and unnecessary security costs), one of Trump’s helicopters made a surprise appearance, landing on the helipad that was specifically built for Marine One. (And, perhaps, built only for Marine One.) The Palm Beach Daily News reports that the arrival of the Trump-branded autogiro was unexpected. “This was not something we knew was coming,” a representative of the local fire-rescue squad told the newspaper. Though, when one is living that close to Mar-a-Lago, shouldn’t one expect things with Trump insignia on them to intermittently fall out of the sky? Seems like that would happen a lot down there.

Trump was at Mar-a-Lago this weekend for some golf and a little “Didja see I bombed Syria?” gloating, but he did not set foot on his beloved Sikorsky S-76 helicopter. No, it just landed in a grand show and then sat there for the weekend before taking off without him on Sunday, headed for destination unknown. Maybe it’s going to live with the other Trump chopper—the existence of which is only reported, not fact. What we can be certain of is that this was a great display of force from a president who’s been on the ropes since his inauguration in January. Sure the Trumpcare thing went south. Yes his executive orders concerning immigration have been blocked by the courts. But hey! Look! The man has a neat helicopter. And there it was, landing majestically at the president’s beach paradise for all to see. It’s an impressive display of might and importance.

Though, I’m sure it was purely accidental that the helicopter arrived in such grand fashion when everyone was there to see it. I’ve no doubt that the president would rather have had the helicopter quietly arrive when he wasn’t around, when there would be no press fanfare about the cool flying machine with “TRUMP” emblazoned on its side. But, that’s not what happened. Instead the helicopter showed up when there were many eyes to witness it, so now you’re reading articles about it. Not what Trump would have wanted, ideally, but you gotta play the hand you’re dealt. Much like you have to use the real estate millions you’re given. One use for those millions is to buy a helicopter, a great whickering symbol of all you’ve done in life. And then maybe someday, you can buy a second one.

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