Why am I not surprised?
White House correspondents are constantly stealing things from Air Force One. In February, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Kelly O’Donnell , felt compelled to send what was described as a “terse email” to her colleagues reminding them taking items like embroidered pillowcases, wine glasses, whiskey tumblers, blankets and gold-rimmed dinner plates “reflects poorly” on the press corps as a whole.
Really? I did not know that! Who would have guessed? Thanks, Kelly!
Actually, O’Donnell’s warning received no responses at all, reportedly, though one member of the press corps apparently returned a pillowcase he had pilfered.
Politico reports that this has been going on for a long time, with reporters stealing taxpayer purchased items with the Air Force One insignia on it being treated as a “rite of passage.” “On my first flight, the person next to me was like, ‘You should take that glass,’” one current White House reporter told Politico. And then the corrupting correspondent “was like”—OK, guess the rationalization.
Come on, guess! I’ll give you 30 seconds….
Time’s up! Politico quotes thusly: “They were like: ‘Everyone does it.’” Ah yes, the #1 Rationalization of them all, and the watermark of the ethically unlettered, “Everybody Does It.” Politico: “Several colleagues of one former White House correspondent for a major newspaper described them hosting a dinner party where all the food was served on gold-rimmed Air Force One plates, evidently taken bit by bit over the course of some time” and ” Reporters recalled coming down the back stairs after returning to Joint Base Andrews in the evening with the sounds of clinking glassware or porcelain plates in their backpacks.”
Politico apparently thinks this is all hilarious, ending its story with a facetious, “Are you IN POSSESSION OF AIR FORCE ONE DINNERWARE? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.“
We receive our information about the work of our President and his staff through the filter of people without even rudimentary ethics alarms: arrogant, unprofessional, untrustworthy and self-indulging assholes.
Ethics Alarms 
It’s almost the same thing as keeping a wedding dinner napkin, right? And who hasn’t done that?
Tongue in cheek, I hope. (My mother stole towels from every hotel she ever stayed in. It was the family shame…)
Did your family travel much? Your mother must have built up quite a collection. Where did she keep them all?
She traveled a lot before she was married. We had a whole closet on the first floor hall stuffed with old towels, washcloths and other stuff she had filched.
Oh yes. Of course, one of the differences is that the bride and groom want to get rid of all that stuff once the wedding is over. They’re certainly not going to use them again.
I somehow don’t think custom made china is in quite the same category.
It seems to me they have three options.
1. Continue business as usual and ignore it.
2. Start some type of enforcement policy to prevent it.
Or 3. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. They could turn it into a money-making opportunity to begin to chip away at the national debt.
To everyone who boards Air Force One, hand out a list of all the items that aren’t nailed down, with theme park level pricing attached, and say, “Just let us know what you’d like and we’ll have it ready for you when you disembark. Gift wrapping is another $25. We take cash and all major credit cards. Sorry, no checks.” (These are journalists, and who needs the hassle of bouncing checks?)
You could charge $15 for Air Force One pens, $45 for ash trays, and so on. Having the item signed by Biden would be an extra $250. Signed by Harris an extra $100. (Or we might have to sell the Harris signed items at a discount off list, depending on how it goes. I haven’t worked out the details yet.)
Given all the disappearing items from Air Force One, I’m really surprised nobody has figured out a way to cash in yet. This is America, isn’t it?
Without going overboard this is the sort of thing that is part of a camaraderie ceremony, like hazing (again, within limits). It does not need to be formally institutionalized, but unwritten rules about it should be fine. Make two or three items that are cheap to restock (say cheap glasses, or napkins), set up a lax enforcement protocol that mostly focuses on the rookies so they don’t succeed in their first or second flight, strongly shame anyone who abuses the thing by taking away more than one item (maybe get a second one after a decade).
Of course all of this only works in a trusting and cordial environment, which our national politics are not. Looks to me it’s cargo culting the “healthy workplace dynamic” signs and they’ve even forgotten what those stick airplanes were supposed to deliver.