Gold-Plated Airliner Emits More Than Double the Runner-Up

Nobody asked for a league table of celebrity pollution, but we have one anyway. And at the top sits Donald Trump, his 1991 Boeing 757 chugging through jet fuel at a rate that makes the rest of the list look almost modest.

The Celebrity Private Jet Tracker updated its figures this week. Trump's aircraft has generated 35,380 metric tons of CO2 over the past two years. Travis Scott came second with 14,775 metric tons. That is not what you would call a close contest.

The tracker does not explain its methodology in much detail, which is worth noting. These numbers rely on publicly available flight data and estimates of fuel burn, so they are probably in the right ballpark without being gospel. Still, even with generous margins of error, Trump's total stands apart.

Former Google boss Eric Schmidt placed third at 10,017 metric tons. P. Diddy's jet, reportedly sold since the data was compiled, clocked 7,019 metric tons. Kim Kardashian ranked fifth at 6,579 metric tons. Elon Musk, who once threatened to sue the student tracking his flights, landed near 5,400 metric tons.

Why The Boeing 757 Changes Everything

Most celebrities fly Gulfstreams or Bombardiers. These are private jets designed for the job - sleek, efficient by the standards of the industry, and built to carry perhaps a dozen people. Trump flies a converted commercial airliner.

His Boeing 757-200 started life ferrying passengers for Sterling Airlines. Trump bought it from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2011 for roughly $100 million (£81 million), then stripped out the standard 228 seats and rebuilt the interior for 43. The cabin features a master bedroom, three bathrooms with gold-plated fixtures, and Italian leather everywhere, according to SlashGear.

The plane logged 367,541 miles across 453 flights over the tracking period. That works out to about one flight every day and a half. The two Rolls-Royce RB211 engines were never meant for this - they were designed to move 200 people across continents, not shuttle a single family between Florida and New York.

What Private Aviation Actually Costs The Climate

A peer-reviewed study in Communications Earth & Environment found that private jets collectively emitted 15.6 million metric tons of CO2 globally in 2023. Emissions jumped 46 per cent between 2019 and 2023, driven mostly by leisure travel, the research showed.

A more recent report from the International Council on Clean Transportation puts the figure higher, 19.5 million metric tons in 2023. The ICCT calculated that a typical private jet pumps out as much greenhouse gas each year as 177 passenger cars, according to their June 2025 analysis.

Nearly half of all private flights cover distances under 500 kilometres, trips perfectly manageable by car. The United States hosts 68.7 per cent of the world's private aircraft, and 65 per cent of all private flights in 2023 departed from American airports.

Only about 0.003 per cent of the global population uses private aviation. The wealthiest 50 billionaires averaged 184 flights each in a single year, generating as much carbon as an average person would produce over three centuries, National Geographic revealed.

Taylor Swift, who faced relentless criticism over her jet usage in previous years, placed 52nd with 1,397 metric tons. She sold one of her two jets in 2023 and claims to purchase carbon offsets. Lady Gaga appeared at 35th with 2,830 metric tons. Oprah Winfrey landed at 20th with 3,859 metric tons.

Proposals to tax private jet emissions have gained little traction in the United States, where the industry remains politically untouchable. The ICCT estimated a global fuel tax of $1.59 (£1.29) per gallon could generate $3 billion (£2.4 billion) annually for aviation decarbonisation. Nobody seems interested.

Trump's jet, according to the tracker, has been parked since early April. Perhaps that changes the next time someone updates the spreadsheet.