Escalade

Make
Cadillac
Segment
SUV

One of the must brutal and elongated presidential elections has just come to a close and even before the first of the ballots were counted, every US citizen knew that no matter who won, half of the country was going to be pissed off. That's why it became important to ensure that when Trump goes from being President-Elect to "Mr. President," there will be a thick layer of bulletproof glass standing between him and his many dissenters. Autoweek managed to pick up some details about the car that will do the job.

As one might expect, the vehicle's exact features and specifications are kept a secret, but it's safe to say that The Beast is more of a tank than automobile. Given the nature of the US president's job, even battle-hardened armored vehicles like the Mercedes S-Class Guard fail to make the cut. Still, The Beast needs to look as sophisticated as an S-Class or Putin's limo given that diplomatic relationships are harder to form when pulling up in an actual tank. To get the best of both worlds, engineers took many of the same safety features from Obama's Beast and simply reimagined them in a more modern looking package. Trump's limousine will be one of the first modeled after the Cadillac Escalade rather than a sedan from GM's luxury brand.

A taller hood lie that gets a set of similarly heightened headlights and grille is the most prominent change, but aside from that we can expect the design to remain huge on the outside and smaller on the inside, reflecting the healthy amounts of armor and bulletproof glass lying in between. One of the upgrades set to modernize the mobile bomb shelter is said to be a lift system that will help Trump avoid the humiliation Obama endured in 2011 when his limousine bottomed out at the US Embassy in Dublin. Upgraded communications systems will follow, but aside from that, there isn't much updating to do given that the Beast's current designs are more than capable of handling any potential assassination attempts.

For those thinking that the president makes important decisions and signs bills in the back of the seven-seat behemoth, think again. Usually the secret service plans for the president's travels to last less than 30 minutes in the Beast, meaning that there's usually only time for a quick chat with aides or diplomats. Pissed at the election results or not, it's important that the basic premise of democracy be preserved, and Cadillac will be one of the many players that make that possible.