The paper previously claimed that the plane, dubbed a “flying palace,” lacks standard security features
The Trump administration has served several New York Times journalists with subpoenas after the newspaper ran an article questioning the safety of the Air Force One jet donated by Qatar last year. The outlet has in turn accused the White House of attempting to suppress the freedom of the press.
On Thursday, the Times published an article claiming that the new presidential plane – dubbed by the media a “flying palace” and valued at around $400 million – lacks standard security features, including anti-missile defenses. Trump used it to travel to the NATO summit in Türkiye earlier this week.
However, the paper cited anonymous officials as saying that security flaws were the reason the US president abruptly swapped the new airplane for the old Air Force One on his return flight on Wednesday. The decision was supposedly made at the urging of the Secret Service.
According to the newspaper, shortly before the article was published, a senior FBI official reached out, asking that the piece be spiked on national security grounds. The official also reportedly pressed the newspaper to divulge its sources.
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