President Donald Trump was left hanging at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday afternoon as he waited to depart for the Republican Midterm Convention.
The cause of the delay was the deployment of an emergency evacuation slide from the front door on the right side of his controversial Qatari-gifted Air Force One.
Trump remained aboard the helicopter while the incident unfolded.
“They were doing a check on the slide. I think it takes 15 minutes,” Trump told reporters after stepping off the helicopter. “They wanted to make sure it’s going to work perfectly.”
When asked by a reporter whether he was sure the aircraft was safe, Trump responded, “Yeah, I am, or I wouldn’t be on it.”
The slide was then removed from the plane and hauled off in a pickup truck.
He boarded the plane shortly after.
It remains unclear why the slide deployed. On commercial aircraft, it is typical for slides to take up to two days or more to repack and reinstall them in their storage compartments. Usually, the aircraft must also be inspected before returning to service.
Trump accepted the plane as a gift last year and began flying on it July 1.
Upon the plane’s unveiling, in typical Trump fashion, he delivered a hyperbolic speech:
“There will never be one like this. This is very unique. This is considered the world’s most luxurious plane,” the president said. “When it was built, it was built at a level that will probably never be seen again.”
The White House has insisted that the gifted $400 million jet is safe, following speculation after Trump notoriously switched planes at the last minute on his return from the NATO summit
Reports from the time revealed that the plane lacked an anti-missile defense system and other defense capabilities typical of Air Force One aircraft.
The White House then announced that the president would use the old Air Force One until additional security enhancements were installed on the new luxury jet.
Those upgrades have not yet been completed.
“We don’t comment on specific upgrades or modifications to Air Force One,” a senior administration official told The Washington Post. “We maintain a consistent posture that ensures a safe, secure, and reliable capability for the President of the United States and routinely evolve the capability as required to maintain that posture.”
Trump is headed to Dallas to deliver the keynote address at the first-ever Republican midterm convention.
The White House told the Daily Beast to refer to the president’s comments when asked about deploying the evacuation slide.
