Two men were ejected from a JetBlue flight on 22 December 2016 after an alleged confrontation between one of them and Ivanka Trump, daughter of President-elect Donald Trump.
The incident was first reported by the gossip site TMZ, including a picture of Trump attributed to Matthew Lasner, who said on Twitter that his husband intended to "harass" both Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner:
Ivanka and Jared at JFK T5, flying commercial. My husband chasing them down to harass them. #banalityofevil
Initial reports stated that the passenger was "screaming" at Trump after boarding the flight, but Lasner described it differently:
Ivanka and Jared on our flight. My husband expressed displeasure in a calm tone, JetBlue staff overheard, and they kicked us off the plane.
Lasner deleted his Twitter account as the story spread online, while the airline released a statement regarding the encounter:
The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. If the crew determines that a customer is causing conflict on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of escalation during flight. In this instance, our team worked to re-accommodate the party on the next available flight.
However, the company's media relations office did not comment when asked by us whether Ivanka Trump was actually on the flight.
We have reached out to both Lasner and his employer, Hunter College in New York, for comment.