Trump’s Texas trip delayed after emergency slide deploys on new Air Force One on tarmac

Washington — President Trump’s departure to Texas on Wednesday was delayed after an inflatable emergency slide on the new Qatar-gifted Air Force One deployed on the tarmac before he boarded, prompting workers to eventually remove it.

The president was headed to Dallas for the RNC’s Midterm Convention. He was waiting to disembark from Marine One to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews when reporters spotted the slide had inflated and reached the ground. The old Air Force One soon arrived as a backup. 

Mr. Trump approached reporters and said workers were examining the slide, claiming nothing was wrong with the safety feature. 

“So they’re checking the slide over here,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “They were doing a check on the slide, you know?”

Asked if there was a security concern with the plane, the president responded, “No, they were checking it before. And they just wanted to make sure. So they’ve, I guess they’ve already put it up. They want to make sure everything works perfectly.”

The slide was eventually deflated and hauled away by workers, and the plane took off without incident.

The new Air Force One has been in and out of service since the president unveiled it earlier this summer. The president secretly used the old plane to leave Turkey after a summit in July after a credible missile threat, then took the new jet home from the U.K. The White House said soon after that the president would continue using the old Air Force One while the newer luxury jet underwent additional security enhancements.

Mr. Trump is planning to take the new jet on an overseas trip to Ireland later this month.