In a wild (even by his standards) Fox News interview that aired on Monday, Donald Trump compared “bad apple” cops who kill people to golfers who miss short putts and pushed a conspiracy theory that a plane “almost completely loaded with thugs” were sent to “damage” last week’s Republican National Convention. There’s extremely “sir, this is an Arby’s” energy coming from this baseless, no-other-evidence-offered claim.
The president told host Laura Ingraham that “we had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend, and in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear and this and that.” Trump brought it up again on Tuesday, informing reporters, “A person was on a plane, said there were about six people like that person, more or less, and what happened is the entire plane filled up with the looters, the anarchists, rioters, people looking for trouble. The person felt very uncomfortable on the plane.” He said this “person” might “speak to [the press], maybe they won’t,” but they probably won’t, because they’re a character from Con Air.
As many on Twitter have noted, Trump’s “plane loaded with thugs” sounds awfully similar to the plot of the peak-Jerry Bruckheimer 1997 action movie starring a wild-haired Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi (who plays the character most likely to snitch to Trump), John Malkovich, and a poor stuffed bunny rabbit. It’s great.
The “person” was Nic Cage in Con Air. https://t.co/fXNc9bCMKA
— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) September 1, 2020
Trump watched Con Air and thought it was the news https://t.co/6uyyXSwl6J
— Sal Gentile (@salgentile) September 1, 2020
Follow-up question: Is “the person” the director of “Con Air”? https://t.co/vrwkUDTDhq
— Jason Zinoman (@zinoman) September 1, 2020
This Con Air sequel sounds https://t.co/qDcaekvMlY
— andi zeisler (@andizeisler) September 1, 2020
wait wait wait–is it possible that he just fell asleep with CON AIR playing in the background https://t.co/3McLFYXLN7
— Jason Linkins (@dceiver) September 1, 2020
But was there any money on this plane?
(Via New York Times)