RUSH:  You know the contretemps, the controversy that erupted earlier this week when Trump tweeted out that $4 billion was just too much to pay for a new Air Force One — actually two of them, so let’s be accurate.  Two new editions of Air Force One, 747-8s.  The biggest 747 Boeing makes.  They’re not selling well, by the way.  They’ve had to reduce production.  And we went into a long, drawn-out discussion of what Trump could be up to.  The history of Boeing and their relationship to the Iranian nuke deal, the fact they donated to Republicans and that’s why the Republicans didn’t stop Obama doing the nuke deal, because Boeing wanted the sanctions lifted so they could sell new aircraft to Iran for their national airline.

And then the ChiComs are involved because Boeing makes a lot of aircraft for the ChiComs; even have a factory there.  And so the Drive-Bys and the media and the know-it-alls, the know-it-alls, the experts in nothing in the Drive-By Media immediately started making fun of Trump, saying he was lying and making it up, there’s no way two Boeing 747s cost $4 billion.  I went to my little tech blogs and found the same ignorance and idiocy making fun of Trump, he can’t possibly be this stupid, what a dummkopf, what an idiot that we’ve elected, and they started looking at the retail price for a Boeing 747 if, say, Japan Air was gonna buy one.  

Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016

I’m sitting here, it’s amazing the number of people today who are willing to express their genuine new kind of stupidity, willing to express in public their total ignorance of things.  It’s almost an epidemic, if you ask me, the number of people, entities, be it journalists, be it bloggers, be it anybody willing to broadcast their stupidity and ignorance.  This was a great example of it.  “Well, what do you mean, even the Air Force, they’re not gonna be overcharging, $4 billion for a 747?”  

Do you know what this 747 is?  You know the way to understand Air Force One, it’s not a 747.  That’s just the shell that it’s in.  There isn’t an airplane like this.  This airplane will withstand the radiation from a nuclear blast.  This airplane can stay in the air indefinitely as long as there are tankers around.  This airplane has communications devices and defense mechanisms and shielding devices, technology for communications that nobody even knows exists.  

It has a full-fledged medical operating room on board should there not be any nearby and the president needs surgery.  The idea that two of these planes might cost $4 billion is entirely reasonable.  The only thing about this Air Force One that makes it look like a 747 is that that’s what the shell of the device looks like.  It happens to be the largest, which is what’s needed, domestic aircraft made.  The only one larger is the Airbus A380, and there’s no way Donald Trump is going to buy an Airbus for Air Force One.  So a Boeing 747-8 is it.  

Well, it turns out — this is from the U.K. Daily Mail.  Headline:  “Trump Was Right About Air Force One: Pentagon budget documents show Boeing program is slated to cost more than $4.2 billion — Government budget and procurement documents show that President-elect Donald Trump was right to insist that the new Air Force One jets will cost taxpayers more than $4.2 billion.” 

How many people do you remember going on cable news, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, trashing Trump for being an ignoramus on this?  I’m sure if you watch cable news you’ve seen countless people laughing at, mocking, and making fun of Trump.  And how many people are surprised that it’s a U.K. paper that unearthed the truth, which is right here in readily accessible Pentagon contract documents.  

“DailyMail.com has obtained documents showing long-term ‘Research, Development, Test & Evaluation’ costs amounting to $2.872 billion.” I actually heard some people, “These things only cost $189 million.”  The $189 million was the first payment of the first contract that was simply a “we’re gonna do it” deal.  It had nothing to do with the actual cost of the airplane.  

Folks, it’s a serious problem, and it may sound funny to you when I say it or it may sound cruel, but there’s just way too much stupidity out there among people who ought to know better.  There’s too much stupidity and the reason the stupidity is there is because these people cannot get rid of the blinding partisanship and bias they bring to their existence.  They’re not even trying to.