Fact Check: Did Trump Fly to Moscow Claiming He Was En Route to D.C.?

Donald Trump has made a number of warning remarks to Russia recently, insisting Moscow will "respect" the U.S., following talks between President Vladimir Putin and China's President Xi Jinping.

Trump, who has claimed he built a friendly relationship with Putin while in the White House, said on Truth Social the talks were a "low point" for the U.S. and accused China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea of "dividing up the World".

However, according to one social media post this week, Trump may have been making conversation with Moscow as well, with an image of a flight path purportedly showing his private jet on its way to the Russian capital.

The Claim

A Reddit post by user u/kneejerk2022, posted on March 27, 2023, that received 5,000 upvotes, showed a screengrab taken from the app for flight tracking service Flightradar 24.

The image showed a plane highlighted in red, flying to Moscow, with information including the flight ID (N757AF), its operator (DJT Operations LLC), its origin (Miami), and its destination (Moscow).

A note attached alongside the icon of the plane included what appeared to be a Truth Social post by Donald Trump which said "YOUR FAVORITE PRESIDENT WILL BE LANDING IN WASHINGTON IN 30 MINUTES TO CONFRONT THE NO GOOD MADE UP CHARGES BY THE EVIL CORRUPT DOJ HEAD ON! I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE."

The Reddit post included the message: "Trump putting the L in fight", suggesting he had been caught out or made a mistake.

The Facts

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he were still president, citing his positive relationship with Putin.

If judging by the picture on Reddit alone, the former president could be building on that groundwork or establishing other connections in Moscow.

However, the image is misleading.

For a start, Donald Trump's plane has been blocked from flight recording since 2015.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote in 2015 that according to flight tracking service FlightAware, the FAA "does not make flight data from military aircraft—including Air Force One—available to public websites and will block the ability to track any aircraft after a verified request from the plane's owner."

It added that such a request had been made on behalf of Trump's plane. It appears the block is still in place; looking at available records from the past three years on Flightradar 24 shows that no flights using that aircraft have been recorded.

The Reddit post does not include any dates for the flight and the message from Truth Social is also undated.

Although Newsweek was unable to find the Truth Social post quoted on Reddit, given that Truth Social was only launched last year, and that the flight records for Trump's aircraft have been blocked for at least three years, we can say with confidence that there is no way that a flight on the aircraft quoted on Reddit could have been tracked while he was using Truth Social.

This is not to say that Trump may have visited Russia using another flight or through another travel arrangement. However, given his profile, alongside the security and scrutiny facing any Western leader or public figure visiting Russia as it continues its conflict with Ukraine, it seems improbable that information about such a visit could have been kept entirely secret.

In any case, the image that has been shared on Reddit misleadingly suggests that Trump was visiting Moscow.

Furthermore, Trump has only appeared in Washington D.C. on a few occasions since he left the White House in 2021. These include a visit to the America First Agenda Summit in July 2022 and a surprise visit in September 2022.

While Trump claims to have established friendly connections with the Kremlin, he was recently made fun of on Russian state TV.

Discussed on a show hosted by Vladimir Solovyov, nicknamed 'Putin's voice,' on the state-controlled Russia-1 channel, Solovyov rejected the suggestion Russia might "collaborate" with Trump, insisting he would "follow the instructions of his higher-ups," an apparently joking reference to claims Moscow has influence over the former president.

Newsweek has contacted a representative of Donald Trump via email for comment.

The Ruling

Misleading Material.

The aircraft mentioned in the Reddit post has been blocked from flight tracking websites for at least the past three years.

As Truth Social was only launched in 2022, we can say with confidence that the aircraft could not have been tracked alongside any messages Trump has posted on the social media platform.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team