President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him that an Israeli plumber was responsible for stabilizing a hijacked Flydubai flight, emphasizing that the passenger had no experience operating a commercial aircraft.
Trump recounted his call with Netanyahu to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. The president said he spoke with the prime minister following the copilot of a Flydubai flight allegedly attempting to crash the plane.
The individual Trump is referring to was one of several passengers who stepped up to regain control of the aircraft after the rogue copilot allegedly stabbed his colleague.
“A plumber, an Israeli plumber, never flew a plane, was rarely in planes, very rarely flew,” Trump said. “An Israeli plumber saw what was happening. Strong, you know, when you lift pipe all day, you’re strong. And he saw what was going on. He heard the screaming. … The plane was going sharply down at an unbelievable angle, so sharp that the rudder ripped off the back of the plane. Plane wasn’t designed to go at a speed anywhere near that, and so it was well beyond its limits. … He ripped this guy out of the seat, threw him back. The crowd got him. The passengers got him. Grabbed him. And having never flown a plane, he took the stick, lifted it up, and leveled out the plane before it crashed.”
According to Netanyahu’s account, the passengers, many of whom were Israeli, were saved when a passenger and crew member managed to break into the cockpit after the stabbed pilot opened the door, stopping the pilot as he attempted to damage the plane’s systems. After subduing the pilot, another crew member entered the cockpit and stabilized the plane.
“I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the story that I got from Bibi,” Trump said, referring to Netanyahu.
The prime minister did not identify the passenger who stabilized the plane as a plumber, but Trump said he received the information in a private phone call. The pilot who unlocked the cockpit door of a hijacked Flydubai flight after getting stabbed was identified by officials as Indian national Smit Machchhar.
NETANYAHU SAYS ONE PILOT STABBED THE OTHER AND TRIED TO CRASH FLYDUBAI PLANE
Netanyahu said the plane was ultimately diverted and landed in Saudi Arabia, where the pilot who attempted the hijacking is now being interrogated by Saudi authorities.
The prime minister didn’t offer up a motive for the pilot’s actions, but Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz quickly characterized the incident as a “jihadist terrorist attack attempt.” Some reports have suggested the pilot was an Omani national, but officials have yet to release details.
Trump, however, said the situation seemed as if the pilot was a “terrorist or, perhaps, a whack job.”
President Donald Trump defended the legality of the controversial advertisements promoting himself by saying that he is not on the ballot in November, as critics claims they are political in nature and could violate federal law.
“Well, I’m not running for office,” Trump said in his first comments addressing the ads. “So, the ads are, you know, given by me, but I’m not running for office, and I don’t talk about anybody.”
The funding for the ads came from federal taxpayer dollars meant for Customs and Border Protection and has received bipartisan backlash, including from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I don’t think any public official, including President Trump or Kristi Noem or John Kennedy, should spend public money on private ads for themselves,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told CBS News on Sunday.
Trump, however, appeared unconcerned that he was inappropriately using taxpayer money to boost his administration and may be violating federal propaganda laws. The White House has also defended the ads as public service announcements.
“When I’m talking about making America great, making our country great, that’s a countrywide ad. That’s an ad for the spirit of our country,” said Trump. “Now, if somebody said that that’s wrong, I’ll gladly pay the money. But … these are ads for the country.”
At least three of the ads have aired on network and cable TV, costing taxpayers at least $2 million as of Tuesday afternoon, according to AdImpact, which tracks ad reservations. The ads, titled “The Country He Loves,” “Celebrating The Enduring Spirit,” and “Final Battle,” feature voice-overs from Trump and text saying the U.S. government paid for them.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION USING BORDER MONEY TO PAY FOR TAXPAYER-FUNDED ADS
Trump denied the accusation that he was boosting himself and again pointed to “promoting” the nation as the rationale for the ads.
“These aren’t ads. I’m not promoting. You have to understand. I’m not promoting the candidate. I’m not promoting myself because I’m not running for office. I’m promoting the country,” Trump also said.
Hailey Bullis contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump denied hearing leaked audio of Ken Paxton, the Republican Texas Senate nominee, complaining that the Republican National Committee midterm convention did not help boost his campaign against Democrat James Talarico.
“Well, I haven’t heard that, but I can tell you that the convention was amazing, as you probably know,” Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon when asked about the audio. “We had 107 million views.”
According to an audio recording reported by the New York Times, Paxton was heard telling donors and lobbyists that the convention hurt his poll numbers. “So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers,” Paxton said. “Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good.”
But Trump’s focus on Wednesday was about the views the convention had in contrast to the two NFL games that also aired during the two-night event earlier this month.
“Think of this: We had over 100 million views. I think 107. The NFL had 25 million views, so we had four times what the NFL did,” said Trump.
The president did concede that maybe Paxton had a point about his comments. Paxton is trailing Talarico by 3 points, according to aggregate survey data from RealClearPolling. The GOP and aligned groups will have spent more than $300 million boosting the scandal-plagued Texas attorney general against Talarico, who is also a prolific fundraiser.
“And you know, it’s possible that could be true. I don’t know if it’s possible, but other people were helped greatly,” he said. “This was a national convention, midterm convention, never been done before, and we went directly against the NFL.”
According to CNN, Trump’s primetime address reached 3 million viewers, while the NFL’s 2026-27 season kickoff game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots reached more than 25 million viewers.
PAXTON ABSENT AS VANCE RALLIES IN TEXAS
Trump also said the RNC will likely hold another convention in the future.
“I would imagine they do it again often. Somebody said it won’t do as well because I won’t be around, but I’ll be around in some form,” said Trump. “I don’t know what form I’m going to be around in. But … the convention, you know, just based on the views that it got, it … was the most-watched thing on television, and that included the NFL, which is pretty amazing.”