Trump's Quiet Trip to D.C. Sparks Flurry of Speculation Former President Donald Trump (Getty Images)
By Fran Beyer | Monday, 12 September 2022 08:11 AM EDT
Former President Donald Trump's flight to Washington, D.C., on Sunday set off a wave of new speculation — both serious and silly — about his future political plans.
Photos of his flight from a New Jersey airport Sunday evening, and a flight plan filed for Dulles airport in Virginia — one often used by those headed to the nation's capital — were widely posted on Twitter.
The former president's landing at Dulles was also photographed, as was the ride in a blacked-out SUV from the airport.
Trump made no remarks about the trip to Washington, or about what he was doing, but others theorized it may have been a fundraising trip to meet with donors, or possibly a meeting with GOP leaders amid the controversy over the FBI's raid of Trump's Florida Mar-a-Lago home, where they took away classified documents kept there.
A special master will now review records seized by the FBI during its August raid that Trump has labeled a "political witch hunt."
Last week, former Attorney General Bill Barr defended the raid, saying Trump was getting dangerously close to being indicted.
News outlet Raw noted some Twitter posters had more ludicrous theories about the journey — including that Trump was moving more documents, this time to his Virginia golf course.
But weighing on many posters' minds was whether an indictment may be at hand. Lawyer George Conway, an ardent Trump critic, tweeted the weather has been "arraigning — I mean, raining."
Meanwhile, Mary Trump, the former president's niece who is also a constant critic, told MSNBC on Sunday the Department of Justice doesn't typically base its decisions on political risks, Raw reported.
"So, the real question here is will it be too dangerous not to prosecute Donald if, indeed, he is potentially guilty of committing serious crimes against this country," she said.
"It seems pretty clear to me that either way we are going to be in a lot of trouble. We already are," she asserted about her famous uncle's influence.
"We would be much worse off, even if it created a dangerous situation if we refused to do anything and allowed this kind of criminality to stand," she added.
Other speculation swirled around whether Trump's visit was a Walter Reed trip for some kind of medical treatment — though he wouldn't have to go to Walter Reed for medical care, Raw pointed out.
However, Walter Reed is subject to any Freedom of Information Act requests while other medical clinics would not be, the news outlet reported.