Donald Trump was supposed to be on his way to Dallas for the Republican Party’s unusual midterm convention Wednesday.
Instead, he found himself sitting aboard Marine One while crews scrambled around his controversial, Qatari-gifted jet after an emergency slide suddenly deployed on the tarmac.
The inflatable slide rolled out from the side of the aircraft at Joint Base Andrews as Trump waited nearby, delaying his departure by roughly 20 minutes.
The bizarre scene was captured on live news coverage as crew members inspected the deployed slide and appeared to work on the aircraft.
Trump eventually addressed reporters, insisting there was no reason for alarm.
“They want to make sure everything works perfectly,” he said.
Asked whether he was certain the aircraft was safe to fly, Trump gave a characteristically blunt answer.
“Yeah, I am, or I wouldn’t be on it.”
The slide was eventually deflated and removed, and Trump boarded the plane for Dallas. The aircraft then took off.
The timing was awkward, to say the least.
The Boeing 747-8 is the controversial aircraft Qatar gave to the Defense Department and which the Trump administration has been using as a temporary replacement for the traditional Air Force One.
The plane, valued at roughly $400 million, was accepted as a gift from Qatar last year and underwent an accelerated renovation before Trump began using it in July.
And this isn’t the first time the aircraft has generated questions about its security.
In July, Trump was secretly transferred to another military aircraft while leaving Turkey after U.S. officials received intelligence about a potential Iranian threat. The unusual operation involved Trump leaving through a catering truck while the Qatari jet and another Air Force One remained part of the departure operation. Reports at the time said Trump’s security team had concerns about security features on the new aircraft.
Trump subsequently said the jet would be taken out of service and “maxed out” with additional security upgrades.
The White House has pushed back on concerns about the aircraft, describing it as a state-of-the-art plane equipped with high-level security protocols.
Now, just weeks later, the jet was sitting on the tarmac with an emergency evacuation slide hanging out of its side as Trump waited to board.
Officials characterized Wednesday’s incident as a check of the slide rather than an indication that the aircraft was unsafe.
And Trump clearly wasn’t interested in letting the malfunction—or whatever exactly caused the slide to deploy—keep him grounded.
After the delay, the Qatari jet took off for Dallas, where Trump was scheduled to address the Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention.
