F-16s Fire Flares Over Ohio Youth Event as Airspace Violations Around Trump Pile Up, Fourth Incident in a Week

Since NORAD intercepted three civilian aircraft near Trump's Bedminster golf club on August 9, fighter jets have now scrambled a fourth time in a week, this time over a youth sports event in Ohio.

F-16 fighter jets intercepted a civilian plane that flew into restricted airspace around Geneva, Ohio, at about 6:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday, August 11, according to NORAD. Trump was there for the final day of the Patriot Games, a youth athletic tournament backed by the White House to mark the country's 250th anniversary, held at Spire Academy.

The jets fired flares to get the pilot's attention, NORAD said, and the aircraft was safely escorted out. NORAD officials said the flares "burn out quickly and completely, and pose no danger to people on the ground," though they may have been visible from below.

Three general aviation aircraft breached temporary flight restrictions over Bedminster, New Jersey, on Sunday, August 9, while Trump was at his golf club for the LIV Golf New York tournament, according to CBS News and Newsweek. NORAD's F-16s intercepted two of those planes directly; a third also triggered an alert. One report from WRGA, cited by the Sunday Guardian, said the Bedminster response delayed Trump's own departure by roughly 13 minutes, with Secret Service vehicles visibly staged during the disruption.

NORAD says these incidents aren't isolated. General Gregory Guillot, the command's leader, has previously said his forces have responded to more than 20 "tracks of interest" near Trump's properties since he returned to office, and that the volume of violations suggests many civilian pilots simply aren't checking Notices to Airmen, the FAA bulletins that flag restricted airspace before a flight. The 1st Air Force's Air Forces Northern command posted a blunt reminder on X: "Check NOTAMs before EVERY flight!"

There's no indication any of the four aircraft this week posed an actual threat. NORAD and other officials have consistently characterized these as accidental violations by pilots who didn't check restrictions, not hostile incursions. That's the read from every source here, including CBS News, Newsweek and the Straits Times reporting from the New York Times. Nobody has alleged otherwise.

The Ankara story resurfaces

According to reporting from the Washington Post and New York Times, cited by the Guardian, Fox News and Breitbart, Trump boarded the legacy Air Force One in front of cameras on July 8, then slipped out a side door into an airport catering truck and transferred to a smaller C-32A jet, flying under the low-profile call sign "RCH18." The original 747 kept broadcasting the "AF1" call sign and carried more than a hundred reporters, aides and staff to the UK, who believed the president was aboard the whole time.

Asked about it Tuesday night at Joint Base Andrews, Trump confirmed the swap and defended it as a Secret Service call. "Well, it's only up to the Secret Service, I just follow what they'd like to do," he said. "They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say." He also argued the plane he actually flew was the riskier one. "I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. That would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for."

Trump said he didn't press for details on the underlying threat. "I guess there was a threat out there. I didn't really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats." He added that as "the most consequential president," he draws more threats than his predecessors.

Democrats aren't satisfied with that answer. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called the operation "unprecedented and surreal" and "downright scary" on CNN, and demanded a congressional briefing, saying he wants to know "what precautions were taken to keep the staff and reporters on that plane safe" if the original aircraft was judged too dangerous for the president himself. Steven Cash, a former CIA officer now with the Steady State advocacy group, put it more bluntly to the Guardian: the arrangement effectively "offered up 100 or so people to be killed by the Iranians in his place."

If intelligence flagged a credible threat to a specific aircraft, why weren't the people staying on that aircraft told? Nothing in the available reporting shows the White House has directly addressed that question, separate from Trump's comment that Secret Service made the call. No congressional briefing has been scheduled as of this week. Whether one happens, and what it reveals about the threat assessment behind leaving a planeload of reporters and staff in the dark, remains open.