Freelance reporter Andrew Leyden posted a peculiar image to X on Friday: former President Donald Trump's private Boeing 757, sometimes referred to as "Trump Force One," parked next to a diplomatic aircraft for the Russian government at Washington Dulles International Airport.
It's unclear exactly how this happened and it could easily have been a coincidence — this Russian aircraft, an exception to the general ban on Russian planes in U.S. airspace, visits Washington, D.C. every few months to exchange embassy staff — but the sight of these two aircraft parked together triggered a flurry of speculation and jokes, given that the former president famously received support from the Russian government in the 2016 presidential election, and was always close with Russia's strongman leader Vladimir Putin.
Commenters on social media, in particular, offered their own theories about what was going on, with varying degrees of humor.
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"Documents exchange," wrote former GOP strategist Ron Filipkowski on X.
"Last weekday in June. Time for the mid-year performance review," wrote Columbia University academic affairs dean Bill Grueskin.
"Bill Clinton happen to be parked next to Loretta Lynch one time and Republicans wanted them executed," wrote podcaster @BlackKnight10k, referring to a conspiracy theory Republicans had that the Clintons were manipulating the former Obama administration attorney general.
"Hold up… say what?" wrote podcaster Jim Stewartson. "Aren’t their laws against interfering with the US government when you aren’t an employee? Were there bags of rubles being transferred across [sic] the tarmac? What the f--- is going on? @ODNIgov@DOJNatSec@CIA is anyone home?"
"Is Trump giving them documents Vlad ordered him to fetch from the Mar-a-lago 's------'?" suggested political strategist Cheri Jacobus.
Watch footage of the aircraft parked together below or click the link.