On Aug. 9, former President Donald Trump traveled to Montana to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy, who is running against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.
While traveling, Trump’s personal plane had to make an unscheduled stop for maintenance in Billings, Montana. While the plane was grounded, Trump used a different private jet to travel to campaign events on Aug. 9 and Aug. 10.
Social media posts with millions of views claim the plane Trump used was once owned by late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Some viral posts, including one from Rep. Jack Kimble (R-Calif.), claimed Trump leased a plane nicknamed by some as the “Lolita Express,” which is the Boeing 727 plane Epstein allegedly used to shuttle underage girls.
Several VERIFY readers asked us if it's true that Trump used Epstein’s plane, while others asked us if he bought or “inherited” it, as some other viral posts imply.
THE QUESTION
Did Trump’s campaign use a private plane once owned by Jeffrey Epstein?
THE SOURCES
- Flight Aware, a flight tracking website that also provides plane registration information
- Court records from the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands
- Bloomberg report published July 19, 2019
- Reporting by The New York Times
- Reporting by the Miami Herald
THE ANSWER
Yes, Donald Trump’s campaign used a private plane once owned by Jeffrey Epstein. However, claims that Trump used the plane known as “Lolita Express,” or that his campaign purchased the plane, are false.
WHAT WE FOUND
While campaigning in the Rocky Mountain region on Aug. 9 and Aug. 10, former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump flew on a Gulfstream G550 jet once owned by Jeffrey Epstein, VERIFY found. That plane was used while his other plane, a Boeing 757 nicknamed “Trump Force One,” was undergoing repairs.
Trump’s campaign told various news outlets they didn’t know it was owned by Epstein.
VERIFY was able to match the serial number on the plane Trump used to one previously owned by Epstein using Flight Aware, a flight tracking website that also provides plane registration information.
According to Flight Aware, the Gulfstream G550’s tail number is N550GP and its serial number is 5173. While aircraft tail numbers can change, the serial number remains the same on planes and each plane has a unique number.
A plane with that serial number was once owned by Plan D LLC, a business entity based in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. According to court records from the Virgin Islands, Plan D LLC was once a business owned by Epstein.
A July 2019 Bloomberg report about Epstein’s shell companies said at the time, Plan D LLC owned a Gulfstream G550.
The Gulfstream G550’s current owner is charter plane leasing company Threshold Aviation Company, which has a photo of the plane on its website. The plane is a dark blue color with white accents and rounded windows. There is white paint bordering the two windows toward the rear of the plane. This photo of Epstein’s private plane taken on May 24, 2018, by a Miami Herald photographer shows the same paint detail.
Contrary to viral claims made online, this is not the same jet known as the “Lolita Express,” the Boeing 727 plane allegedly used to shuttle underage girls. That plane hasn’t flown since 2016 and has been destroyed, according to Miami Herald reports.
On Aug. 9, Trump’s Trump Force One plane was supposed to land in Bozeman, Montana, but made an unscheduled landing in nearby Billings due to mechanical issues at about 2:29 p.m.
The New York Times reported that because of the mechanical issue with Trump’s campaign plane, the campaign called its charter jet vendor, Private Jet Services Group, and that charter service provided the Gulfstream.
The plane was used on Aug. 9 and Aug. 10 to ferry Trump and his campaign staff to various locations in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.
VERIFY reached out to the Trump campaign for comment, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
A campaign spokesperson did tell the Miami Herald that a decal with the words “Trump 2024” was put on the side of the Gulfstream G550, and “the campaign had no awareness that the charter plane had been owned by Mr. Epstein … We heard about the former owner through the media.”
A Trump campaign official told the New York Times the campaign had been using Private Jet Services Group as a vendor for several years and it would take efforts to avoid using that plane in the future.
VERIFY also reached out to Private Jet Services Group and Threshold Aviation Company for comment and did not hear back at the time of publication.
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