President Donald Trump on Monday made his first public speech to a military crowd, promising changes to uniformed troops at MacDill AFB, Fla. MacDill is “quite a place,” Trump said. “And we’re going to be loading it up with beautiful new planes and beautiful new equipment. We are going to load it up. You are going to get a lot of equipment. Believe me.” MacDill has not been named as a base for new Air Force aircraft, including the KC-46, and Trump seemed to be speaking more broadly about the military as a whole. During his speech, Trump thanked Lockheed Martin and Boeing for opening up to negotiations on aircraft such as the F-35 and the next generation Air Force One, saying “we will ensure no taxpayer dollars are wasted. I have already saved more than $700 million when I [got] involved in the negotiation on the F-35. You know about that.” Trump, during the brief visit, met with US Central Command chief Army Gen. Joseph Votel and US Special Operations Command head Army Gen. Raymond Thomas. He thanked those in CENTCOM and SOCOM for their service in the fight against terrorism. “No enemy stands a chance against our Special Forces, not even a chance,” Trump said. “They don’t have a chance. And that’s the way we’re going to keep it. And you’re going to be better off because you’re going to have the finest equipment known to man.” (Read the transcript.)
The six-week government shutdown did not affect the hours flown by Air Force pilots, a service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine—avoiding what could have been a major blow at a time when flying hours are already lower than they have been in decades.
