No. of Recommendations: 5
Friend of Trump uses his private jet to deport 8 to the West Bank. Each flight costing about $500,000. Taxpayers get to pick up the tab. Trump shares the grift with his cronies in so many creative ways. All the detention centers are hugely profitable for private contractors. Utterly corrupt system.
Exclusive: Luxury aircraft owned by property tycoon close to US president’s family has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel AvivHours earlier, they had been sitting with their wrists and ankles shackled on the plush leather seats of a private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump.
His sleek Gulfstream jet – which he has called “my little rocket ship” – was used to transport the men from an airport near a notorious removal centre in Arizona to Tel Aviv. The jet made three refuelling stops en route: in New Jersey, Ireland and Bulgaria.
A Guardian investigation has established the flight was part of a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Dezers first partnered with Trump in the early 2000s and have since built six Trump-branded residential towers in Miami. Together, father and son have made more than $1.3m in donations to support his presidential campaigns, filings show.
Gil Dezer is an influential figure in Miami’s luxury property scene. At his extravagant 50th birthday party last year, attended by celebrities including the rapper Future, performers dressed as Trump mingled with guests. Previously, Gil Dezer also attended Donald Trump Jr’s 30th birthday party.
In a recent interview Dezer spoke of his “love” for Trump. “I’ve known him now for twentysomething years. I was at his wedding. He was at my wedding. We’re good friends. Very proud that he’s in the office. Very proud of the job he’s doing.”
Dezer’s aircraft, which he has described as “my favourite toy”, was chartered by ICE through Journey Aviation, a Florida-based company (which declined to comment on the flights to Israel). Public records show Journey is frequently contracted by US agencies to charter private jets.
US officials did not answer questions about the cost of the two recent flights to Israel but, according to ICE, chartered flight costs have ranged between nearly $7,000 and more than $26,000 per flight hour in the past. Aviation industry sources estimated the flights to and from Israel would have cost ICE between $400,000 and $500,000.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/05/re...Talk about waste fraud and abuse! SO MUCH CORRUPTION!
