Like it or not, the idea of Donald John Trump leading the world’s top superpower may appeal to a lot of Americans but, if a recent article online is any indicator, President Trump may not be very welcome in a lot of places outside of the US.
Travel commentary site Roads & Kingdoms recently ran a compilation of dispatches from various writers around the globe that tackled the same topic, how welcome would President Trump be if he were to do a state visit as the leader of the free world.
Let us say that the responses were not very polite. An English grandmother labelled Trump “a complete ****head.” A Syrian living in Beirut called him “ridiculous and ugly”. An Indonesian editor called Trump “a ridiculous figure from the other side of the planet”.
Even a Penang bloke that was interviewed did not have a nice thing to say about a future President Trump.
While we cannot write out what the young man actually said, suffice to say it involved a joke, the act of procreation and a body part of Mr Trump not necessarily in that order. This just means, of course, that if Donald Trump does become the 45th President of the US, he will probably need a much stronger presidential limo if he plans to go on state visits around a world that does not think highly of him or his views.
For the uninitiated, the US President always travels in an official presidential car. There has been an official car since the 1900s but it was not until an attempted assassination on President-elect Franklin D Roosevelt in 1938 that armoured variants became the norm.
As an interesting aside, with the advent of World War II, a limousine that was being customised with all the mod cons had not yet been completed for President Roosevelt. So, the Secret Service “borrowed” a bullet-proof Cadillac Town Sedan that was available.
That car was the property of mobster Al Capone who was, at that time, in jail for tax evasion. Hence, until the official Presidential limousine was ready, the world’s most powerful man was driven about in a hoodlum’s chariot. There is a metaphor there somewhere.
The need for a special car for the special man can clearly be seen during the assassination of the 35th US President, John F Kennedy. Kennedy was shot in the throat and head whilst in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas. He was in an open top Lincoln Continental and at the mercy of an assassin’s bullet.
The Continental did come with detachable armoured roof. This roof would have been installed on that car if only it had been raining on that fateful day on Nov 22, 1963. On that day, as history has shown, it was not.
Interestingly enough, that particular Lincoln (code-named “X-100” by the Secret Service) remained part of the presidential motor pool until the mid-1970s. This was because it was deemed uneconomical to have it destroyed. The car now resides in the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.
The current presidential car, lovingly called “The Beast”, is based on a Cadillac DTS touring sedan. We say “based” because it is not really a Cadillac any more. It just looks like one. As a veteran Secret Service agent told Autoweek in a 2013 article about The Beast, “The car is really a truck that looks like a limo. And it drives like one too.”
The Beast’s chassis, diesel engine and transmission actually come from a Chevrolet Kodiak. This was a line of medium duty trucks produced by General Motors from 1980 to 2009. The Kodiaks were versatile, in that they have been used as cargo haulers, school buses and dumpsters, amongst others.
The car’s armour-plating (which is military grade steel, titanium, aluminium and ceramics) is said to be eight inches thick and its doors are as heavy as the ones you find on a Boeing 757 aircraft. It is said that the doors are so heavy that it is impossible for the President to open the door from the inside. The Beast’s bulletproof windows are five inches thick and are made up of five different layers to better protect the occupants of the car.
The car’s military grade armour is further reinforced by removable fibreglass sheets on the doors and fenders.
The interior is also sealed from the outside world to ensure that gas and chemical attacks are no bother for the most powerful man in the world. The Beast rides on Kevlar-reinforced Goodyear run-flats and its armoured petrol tank releases special foam to prevent ignition in the event of an impact.
There are also a few of them but the exact number is not known. What is known is that they cost around US$1mil (RM4.14mil) a pop and are built from the ground up. They used to be stock standard cars that had super-secret aftermarket products added on but this practice was abandoned during George W Bush’s time. The reason? All the modifications led to accelerated wear and tear.
In fact, it is a known fact that the Beast’s brake pads have to be replaced after two uses of the car as they get worn down by the need to slow down such an armoured behemoth. The question now then is, if we are to deal with President Donald Trump over the next few years, is the Beast a strong enough a presidential limousine to protect a man so unloved by many?
Perhaps for him, the presidential motor pool may have to fork out the US$500,000 (RM2.07mil) plus change for South Africa’s Paramount Marauder. Unanimously voted by several motoring sites as the toughest road-legal vehicles in the world, President Trump even has the option of weaponising his war chariot.
It may be bulky and spartan, and lacking in many creature comforts that President Trump may be used to, but the Marauder is designed to withstand impacts from mines and other explosive devices. It is also very customisable with many armour and ordnance options available.
The perfect car for the world’s most unpopular man, no?
Update: TheLipTV talks about the new 'Beast' (
