President Donald Trump is still furious about reporting on security problems with his new $400 million Qatari plane.
So, he’s taking drastic measures at the White House to find out where the embarrassing leak came from.
Part of those drastic measures include the highly unusual move of subpoenaing four New York Times reporters.
It all started after the NATO summit in Turkey on July 8, when Trump was getting ready to fly home. He traveled to Ankara on July 7, for the first time aboard his new Air Force One luxury Boeing 747, a gift from Qatar’s royal family in 2025.
Trump spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars upgrading security on the jet but ended up flying home on the old Air Force One due to security concerns, according to reporting from the New York Times.
He left the plane at an airbase in England and publicly said the reason was to allow U.S. troops to tour the jumbo jet.
When the Times’ story broke, Trump flew into a rage. Now CNN is reporting, according to a source, that Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel have demanded some White House staffers turn over their phones.
Wiles and Patel are in charge of the widening probe into who leaked sensitive information on security problems aboard the Qatari plane. In fact, Patel was on his way to Chicago on July 10 when the White House ordered him to return and lead the investigation alongside Wiles, according to news reports.
Social media had a lot to say about Trump’s response to the leak.
“They can never manage to focus on what’s important, never,” a Threads user stated.
“Paranoid?” another wondered.
Others joined in. “Glad the US government is focusing on such important matters such as protecting t’s fragile ego and BS jet bribe.”
The $400-Million Security Risk
In addition to all the taxpayer money Trump spent to upgrade the plane, he plans to take it with him when he leaves the White House in 2029. He said he wants to display it at his future Miami-based presidential library. Critics, though, believe he plans to keep it for his own personal use when his presidency ends.
“Sums up this treasonous criminal administration,” this person proclaimed on Threads above a cartoon drawing of Patel, Defense Chief Pete Hegseth, and former Attorney General Pam Bondi partying in the Oval Office as Trump dozes in the chair at the Resolute Desk behind them.
“Check the Signal chat too,” another person joked, referencing a group 2025 security scandal. In March 2025, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz created a Signal chat with Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other high-ranking officials discussing a strike and inadvertently added a journalist. Hegseth also created a similar chat about the strike that included his family members.
The New York Times Responds
The Times journalists who received a subpoena after reporting on the security lapses in Trump’s new Air Force One are Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, and Eric Schmitt.
In an interview on July 13 on “Morning Joe,” Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman commented on the investigation.
“In this case, the subpoenas were not a last resort, which is typically what they’re supposed to do when there is an alleged leak hunt. This time it came within 48 hours of the first story being published… This was something that was quite known in Washington. It was not a surprise,” Haberman said about the problems with the Qatari jet, according to Mediaite.
“This is not just issuing subpoenas; it’s sending federal agents to people’s homes,” she added.
The Trump administration issued the subpoenas just two days after the July 10 publication of the story. The government also issued subpoenas to two of the reporter’s family members.
The newspaper has filed a motion to fight the subpoenas.
The Times said the government’s actions “raise pressing questions about the conduct of this purported national security investigation and confirm the absence of any regularity in the Department’s use of the grand jury in this case.”
CNN reports investigators also demanded “information from those who were traveling with Trump or had a role in the trip.”
Trump and his administration have had a contentious relationship with the press since returning to power in January of 2025. Trump has filed multiple lawsuits against news outlets, called reporters names, and continues to refer to any unfavorable coverage of himself, family, or his administration as “fake news.”
