Comment by Cultural-Afternoon72 on 02/02/2025 at 02:46 UTC

22 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)

So, he’s partially right and mostly wrong. The Air Force DID, in fact, spend $1,280 per coffee cup on a total of approximately 400 large cups. That’s where his accuracy ends.

These were not disposable paper cups, but rather large electric mugs designed for use in aircraft.
The mugs were reusable
The mugs enabled the user to reheat the contents at will to help prevent waste
They are effectively electric heaters with special plugs designed for use on aircraft
The price was largely because they were considered “aircraft equipment” and thus had to be specially made and have an FAA air worthiness certification

Oh, and the best part:

This wasn’t discovered by DOGE and Elon had absolutely nothing to do with it. The purchase happened in 2016, and came to light in 2018 with CNN and other news outlets reporting on it as early as October 18 of that year. The only reason it even became an issue is because the handles were faulty, requiring the mugs to need to be replaced. In the end, it was decided to just have replacement handles 3D printed for 50 cents each instead of buying whole new mugs. Turns out the existing system was successfully able to bring waste to light and implement options to correct it just fine.

How this is somehow suddenly a mark of success or win for Elon/DOGE nearly 10 years after everything went down remains a mystery.

Replies

Comment by Drewbus at 02/02/2025 at 08:36 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies

It sounds like he discovered for himself. I'll listen to him more if he does something about it