Far-right commentator and former Trump ally, Alex Jones, claimed on Saturday afternoon that Donald Trump is slated to make an "emergency announcement" this evening. However, according to the White House press pool, Trump's schedule does not include any open press event.
Alex Jones has been making a number of unsubstantiated claims about the FAA outage that brought all flight departures in the US to a halt for over 12 hours. Earlier, he had claimed that Trump had gone missing since the FAA first ordered the ground stop. The claim Saturday that Trump is slated to make an emergency announcement is part of a string of unsubstantiated claims the Jones has made following the recent outages with the FAA and Microsoft.
"MASSIVE NEWS: PRESIDENT TRUMP WILL MAKE AN EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE NATION TODAY AT 6:00 PM ET! Are you ready for DOOMSDAY?" Jones wrote in a X post on Saturday afternoon.
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{{/usCountry}}Deep Dive
Was Donald Trump scheduled to make an emergency announcement at 6 p.m.?
Was the FAA outage caused by a cyberattack?
Was Trump moved to a bunker during the FAA outage?
Trump's schedule on the White House press pool document only one event on Saturday: The press pool roll call at 8:00 am ET when the president's executive time begins. There are no other public events scheduled for Saturday. Additionally, a press lid on the president's travel has been issued, meaning he will make no public appearances on Saturday anywhere.
Also read: Fact check: Posts falsely claim Trump, top White House officials moved to bunker amid FAA outage
Is Donald Trump missing?
On Saturday, CNN's senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins posted a short video report about the president's silence on the FAA ground stop that halted thousands of flights nationwide.
Collins pointed out that Trump has made a series of Truth Social posts since the outage, covering a range of issues, but none of it addressed the FAA outage. He has also not been seen in public since, and with Saturday's press lid, a sighting of the 81-year-old is not expected till Sunday morning.
Nonetheless, the FA ground stop has been addressed by US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and the FAA administrator, Bryan Bedford. Duffy and Bedford have ruled out foul play behind the outage and said that an equipment failure or a controller error likely caused Friday's outage.