Fact Check

Did the Crew of Air Force One Refuse to Fly Obama 6000 Miles 'Just to Play Golf'?

Rumors holding that the crew of Air Force One refused to fly President Obama for non-business purposes originated with a junk news site.

Published Dec. 22, 2016

 (FLICKR)
Image Via FLICKR
Claim:
The flight crew of Air Force One refused to fly President Obama 6,000 miles to play a round of golf.

On 21 December 2016, the web site DailyUSAUpdate.com published an article reporting that the flight crew of Air Force One refused to transport President Obama to a golf outing during his vacation in Hawaii:

BREAKING: Crew Of Air Force One Refuses To Fly Obama 6000 Miles ‘Just To Play Golf’

After eight years of flying to Chicago for White Castle burgers, bringing Michelle Obama to LA for the afternoon for a hair appointment and taking the Obama girls to a park they like in San Fransisco [sic] to walk the dog on the government dime, the crew of the famed Air Force One has said enough is enough.

Obama was set to leave Hawaii tomorrow, just for the day, to meet with a pal 6000 miles away for a round of golf. The Captain of the President’s plane told him that unless it was official business from the office of the President, he wasn’t obligated to fly him anywhere.

There was no truth to the above-quoted article.

While DailyUSAUpdate.com did not specifically label this article as a work of a fiction, readers who made it all the way through the article were let in on the joke in its final paragraph:

It’s a fairly well-known fact that after about 150 words and a picture that may or may not be related, most conservative readers will stop reading and go comment that the Muslim should be executed for playing golf. Therefore, less than 20% of those who clicked this article will have made it this far.

Unsurprisingly, the image included in this article was not taken during President Obama's Hawaii vacation in December 2016. It was shot in 2013 at Martha's Vineyard:

On 21 December 2016, the day the president was allegedly denied a flight on Air Force One to reach Hawaii, he actually played golf at the Kapolei Golf Club in Hawaii.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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