President Donald Trump's newest fixation — staging flyovers with the Qatari-gifted Air Force One — has left many Washington, D.C., residents alarmed, and The Daily Beast has likened the obsession to his own personal "Make-a-Wish" gift.

According to an Alternet report, Trump on Thursday ordered the new aircraft — a Qatari-gifted Boeing 747-8 — to conduct a flyover of the White House as part of a Halloween event attended by the children of his top officials. The administration's social media presence promoted the flyover as an "epic" stunt staged "for the trick-or-treaters" on hand. A Washington Post report, however, noted that "in a city that still vividly remembers the deadly 2025 crash near Reagan National Airport and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the flyover caused some concern." The nation's capital has operated under some of the country's tightest airspace restrictions since the 2001 attacks, making unannounced flights over central Washington unusual.

On the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, host Joanna Coles and executive editor Hugh Dougherty discussed the incident and its fallout. Dougherty said no one in the administration gave the District of Columbia's government advance warning about the "Grift Force One" flyover, and that the unannounced maneuver briefly halted air traffic. A ground stop is an air traffic control measure that halts flights at an airport until controllers lift it.

"The Council and the District of Columbia, the legislature, has put out a statement saying, 'What on Earth is going on?'" Dougherty said. "There was a ground stop [at Reagan International Airport] for half an hour... Nobody knew. United and Delta and American [Airlines], that fly from there, had no idea. And they said, 'Oh, sorry. We've got a ground stop for what's described as an executive move or maneuver, and that usually means Marine One is on its way to Andrews Air Force Base. No, it was the biggest plane that Boeing has ever produced flying at maybe 500 feet over the White House, because it was Halloween and the Miller and Hegseth children were getting their candy.'"

Coles called the flyover another example of how the country is dealing with "an administration of one man who wants to do what he wants to do, and the hell with the rest of us." Dougherty added that Trump has grown "obsessed" with flyovers since returning to office.

"We all remember July the 4th, where he basically took over the airspace in D.C. and... people are like, 'Oh, I enjoy it. Who doesn't enjoy a fly-past?'" Dougherty continued. "And [then] they're like, 'Oh, there's another one, another one, another one.' Their dogs were howling, their children were crying.... He has become obsessed by the idea that he can get Air Force One — particularly, he loves showing off this gold plane — to do a fly-past. He goes to stadium, they do a fly-past over the stadium. We saw that on some of his tours down to college football. He sits in the White House and he says, 'I'm going to have some people around. [You] know I'll get Air Force One to fly over.' It's an obsession. It's like a Make-a-Wish president."

Coles added: "I'm not sure how much people have connected this. Maybe they think, 'Oh, it's just military budget, military spending.' It's actually taxpayers dollars going into keeping Donald Trump entertained, because as he gets older, it takes more to keep him entertained."