Former President Donald Trump’s airplane was diverted while heading to a rally that was set to take place in the evening.
Trump’s plane made an emergency landing and reached the ground safely in Billings, Montana, at 2.29pm on Friday, according to Billings Logan International Airport.
The unexpected landing was due to a mechanical issue and not linked to a security issue of any sort, said the Secret Service.
Trump’s deputy director of communications, Margo Martin, shared a video on X (formerly Twitter) just before 5.30pm of Trump from inside his plane.
‘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 said in the video.
He did not address the plane issue.
The Trump campaign did not immediately comment on the incident.
Trump’s plane was supposed to touch down in Bozeman, which is more than 100 miles away from Billings.
He proceeded to take a private plane to Bozeman, after the Secret Service thoroughly inspected the Billings airport.
The former president was expected to hold a rally at Montana State University in Bozeman at 8pm to support Republican nominee for the Senate, Tim Sheehy, who is challenging Democratic Senator Jon Tester.
It is one of the most highly-contested Senate races in the US as the GOP seeks to regain control of the chamber in the November election.
‘I’m here to do some fundraisers and most important to support Tim Sheehy who’s running for the US Senate and we think he’s going to do really well. We’re going to have a rally,’ Trump said. ‘And it’ll be a lot of fun.’
The unplanned landing happened a day after Trump in a press conference claimed he was a passenger in a helicopter with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who was in a relationship with Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris three decades ago.
‘We were in a helicopter, going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing,’ Trump said of the 2018 ride.
He added that Brown said ‘terrible things’ about Harris.
But Brown has since said that it was former California Governor Jerry Brown who was in the helicopter with Trump, not himself, and that there was no emergency landing.
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