Did Donald Trump or his campaign still owe $12,000 in landing fees to the Bozeman airport and was that the reason he diverted his plane to Billings, Montana on Friday, August 9, 2024? No, that's not true: The Bozeman Airport Authority formally denied Trump or his campaign had any outstanding debts to them and said the diversion had to do with mechanical reasons. One of the first accounts on X that started talking about the diversion having to do with outstanding debts later said it was a joke.
One example of the claim could be found in a post on X (archived here) where it was published by @EastEndJoe on August 11, 2024 which read:
Trump couldn't land his plane in Bozeman because he owes that airport over $12,000 in landing fees.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of https://x.com/EastEndJoe/status/1822418359478046837 taken by Lead Stories on August 11, 2024 at 4pm CET)
Lead Stories contacted the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport Airport Authority and received following reply from their President and CEO Brian Sprenger:
This is absolutely false. There are no outstanding debts by Donald Trump or his campaign to the Airport Authority. The diversion was due to mechanical reasons.
An early example of a slightly different version of the claim appeared on the X account @RepRichardDangler (archived here), which describes itself as follows in their bio:
WA's self-appointed 11th District Representative. Fighting the good fight against stupidity, intolerance, and fascism. Semper Fi. What was your first clue?
Washington State's 11th legislative district (archived here) does not have a representative named Richard Dangler and Washington State only has 10 Congressional districts, which are indeed fairly good clues the account is satirical.
The account tweeted on August 9, 2024 (archived here) that Bozeman officials were preparing to seize Trump's plane as collateral for money he owes to the city, but it later clarified (archived here) the news about the plane was a joke.
(Source: screenshot of https://x.com/RepRichDangler/status/1822022279246819562 taken by Lead Stories on August 11, 2024 at 4:15pm CET)
According to NBC Montana (archived here) the Trump campaign does still owe about $12,000 to Missoula County and various other amounts to other places in Montana, which may be the origin of the amount in the failse airport debt story.
