The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump power grab tripped up by distinctly American resistance
Thu, 6 Mar 2025
Rachel Maddow reports on the number of Trump cuts, firings and other initiatives that have been reversed, blocked, walked back or reconsidered, and the variety of American institutions, from the courts to the streets, that have contributed to restraining Trump from asserting the full force of his will.
What is the significance of military aircraft in Trump's administration?
Have you ever been at the beach and seen a Coast Guard helicopter? doing Coast Guard helicopter things at the beach or at the seaside. My dad, God bless him, he's like a savant when it comes to identifying planes and helicopters. In every other way, my dad seems like a normal man.
But you'll be talking to him and there's some tiny fly speck on the horizon that you can't even hear and you can barely see. And he'll whip around and say, oh, a DC-7. I think that was built in 1978. Yeah. be like, oh, I didn't realize that Satabria was still flying out of that airfield. I haven't seen that there in a few years. Like, dad, how do you know this stuff?
I've always been very impressed with my dad that he could do that and a little embarrassed that I can't. But when it comes to Coast Guard helicopters specifically, at least those I can usually say, hey, that's one from the Coast Guard. It's because they're usually painted in very bright, distinctive like orange and orange and white.
But also, unless you're around a bunch of other military aircraft for some reason, they are usually bigger and way more serious looking than anything else that might be flying around, like than any news helicopter or tourist sightseeing helicopter or anything like that. They're really recognizable.
The most recognizable helicopter that you see for things like Coast Guard search and rescue and Coast Guard law enforcement missions is this one you see here, the CH-65 Dolphin. And that one, once I point this out, every time you see one, you'll know exactly what it is.
Because it's not only got the normal helicopter rotor on top, it's also got this distinctive vertical tail rotor as well, that circular tail rotor. It's unmistakable. It's a really big aircraft. And ones like this, they really stand out. But did you know, if you need to, you can stuff one of those huge orange Coast Guard helicopters inside another aircraft.
You can take that helicopter and put it inside another aircraft. It's like a turducken. Look, this is one of those big Coast Guard search and rescue helicopters being put inside another aircraft, being put inside a Coast Guard C-130. Just to give you some idea of how big a Coast Guard C-130 is. That's how huge that plane is. You could put a whole helicopter inside it. One of the big ones.
C-130s can carry whole helicopters. C-130s are so big, they can carry six-wheeled armored U.S. military vehicles. C-130s can carry more than 21 tons of cargo and airdrop it wherever you need, anywhere in the world. C-130s are just massive. For U.S. military transport, they have no trouble hauling more than 90 fully equipped U.S. troops plus all their gear anywhere in the world.
They're just they're just massive. They're like airplane hangers that are also airplanes. Last week, the Trump administration sent the U.S. secretary of defense and a Fox News host and a Fox News channel camera crew all the way to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to be there for the arrival of a C-130.
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