Former President Donald Trump’s private campaign jet was forced to make an emergency landing on Friday due to a mechanical issue, according to reports.
One America News noted that “mechanical issues” caused “Trump Force One” to divert to Billings, Mont., while he was en route to Bozeman, which is a few hours away.
“His aircraft had mechanical issues, and he was diverted into the Billings-Logan Airport,” an airport spokesperson told OAN.
Following a mechanical issue on his plane, @realDonaldTrump walks off his plane in Billings MT, to get on a smaller plane, to continue to Bozeman for a fundraiser and rally. pic.twitter.com/RIVgPUNEKC
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) August 9, 2024
Trump was still expected to land in Bozeman on time for a scheduled rally there, OAN reported.
“I just landed in a really beautiful place: Montana. So beautiful, flying over, and you just look down and that’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Trump posted to his Truth Social page.
The report said Secret Service agents conducted a “complete sweep of the airport” in Billings before Trump boarded a private jet to Bozeman, his first outdoor rally since the assassination attempt on his life last month in Butler, Pa.
The Secret Service asked Trump to stop holding large outdoor rallies and instead choose smaller indoor venues, The Federalist reported in July. But columnist M.D. Kittle added: “The request from the grossly incompetent (at best) federal agency stinks of election interference and sounds a lot like a threat.”
He cited The Washington Post, which was the first to report on the Secret Service’s request to the former president. “In the aftermath of the shooting, agents from the Secret Service communicated their concerns about large outdoor rallies going forward to Trump campaign advisers, three people familiar with the matter said,” the Post reported, without naming those sources.
The campaign “is not currently planning any large outdoor events, a person close to Trump said,” the outlet continued, adding that at president, Trump campaign officials are looking at large indoor venues.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News that he believes it “would be a shame” if the federal protective agency convinced Trump’s campaign to end the outdoor rallies.
“I think people enjoy going to them and I think, you know, you can get more people outdoors than indoors,” Comer said. “He attracts a big crowd, obviously. I think the president will do what the president wants to do.”
Others had a more direct opinion on the matter.
“If I saw this in The Babylon Bee it’d make far more sense,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, noted on his personal X account. “The idea that they’d tell Trump to stop holding rallies is embarrassing — for the Secret Service.”
“This is unreal,” Trump supporter “End Wokeness” wrote on X. “Secret Service is now asking the Trump campaign to stop doing outdoor rallies. How about you do your f*ing jobs?”
“This is a direct threat from the regime to Trump: if he doesn’t stop trying to win, they’ll make sure the next attacker doesn’t miss. We all know what they’re doing,” tweeted Federalist CEO Sean Davis.
Kittle added:
The Post devoted several column inches to what a burden Trump’s outdoor rallies have been for an agency that glaringly failed its mission to protect him. The Post’s narrative is anything but subtle: Trump — and his penchant for massive campaign rallies — is to blame for his near-assassination.
“The rallies have long been viewed as onerous by the Secret Service because they include complicated outdoor venues with thousands — if not tens of thousands — of people,” the Post’s Josh Dawsey writes. “Most other former presidents rarely appear in public, and when they do, they usually appear in settings such as conferences and restaurants with fewer people. Trump requires a much larger security footprint than other past presidents because he holds so many large events.”
But Trump isn’t merely a former president showing up to a haughty cocktail party with D.C. elites. He’s the GOP’s candidate for president, whether the Post and their Democrat pals like it or not.
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