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Donald Trump made a flying visit to Britain - but there's something weird about Air Force One

The new Air Force One may be a palace in the sky, but it seems it's not quite a flying fortress. Trump set down at RAF Mildenhall to refuel and change planes last night - and gave a very weird excuse as to why.

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Trump did half the journey on an old, duck-egg blue Air Force One(Image: Getty Images)

Regular readers may have been surprised when Donald Trump arrived at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey aboard his shiny new Qatar Force One jet.

Hang on, you may have thought, didn't Mikey write last week that the new plane would be reserved for domestic travel because its security specifications aren't up to the level of the proper fleet of 'Air Forces One'?

Well, last night, I was kind of proven correct. Stay with me. Trump announced on Truth Social that he was "sending" the new jet to RAF Mildenhall, one of 12 US Air Force-run bases in England for refuelling. He said he wanted to give US troops stationed at the base a tour of the aircraft.

He, on the other hand, would be flying from Ankara to Suffolk aboard one of the "old" planes "for old time's sake."

Qatar Force One was sent to Mildenhall ahead of time, and when Trump landed, he decamped to the new jet for the jaunt across the Atlantic and back to DC.

He did not, dear readers, fly halfway home on the old plane solely for "old time's sake" but what's the difference between the journey out and the journey home?

Well, the main difference is that America is, as of Tuesday night, dropping bombs on Iran again. And while the eight months spent getting the Qatar-gifted 747 up to the President's standards apparently included installing lay flat seats and lots of TVs, it seems it didn't include the kind of security and weapons systems required to keep the President safe on an intercontinental flight. Particularly one that takes off from a country that borders Iran.

According to the New York Times the Secret Service asked the President not to use the Qatari-donated jet for the first leg of the trip.

Meanwhile, a delicious nugget of gossip from Mirror Political Editor Lizzy Buchan, who has been in Ankara for the NATO summit this week.

Yesterday, Belgian PM Bart De Wever joked that he would be careful not to mention Team USA's ejection from the World Cup at the hands of Belgium's Red Devils when he met with him at the summit. He said Trump had "the reputation of sometimes reacting a bit irritably to things that he doesnt like, and I think this defeat will hit hard."

And we hear he wasn't alone. Trump had already got off the plane jetlagged and ratty and was doing things like pulling trade from Spain and talking about annexing Greenland again. So all of the world leaders appear to have avoided the subject in conversations with Trump "so as not to wind him up further."

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[Mikey Smith]

Mikey Smith

Mikey Smith is the Mirror's US Political Editor, working in Washington and Westminster to cover the second Donald Trump administration.

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