A viral video appears to show a couple being booted from a plane in West Palm Beach, Florida, after allegedly “yelling racist & homophobic slurs” before take-off, though the woman claimed it was because they were supporters of former President Donald J. Trump.
The video, initially posted to TikTok by user @charlottedalessio, had garnered over five million views as of Tuesday.
Watch below:
@charlottedalessio Couple yelling racist & homophobic slurs wouldn’t deboard plane today leaving West Palm Beach. A free show to all on board
The clip begins with the woman amid an apparent argument with a flight attendant.
“You don’t like the words coming out of my mouth? No words, no words. Free speech is dead,” she told the employee, adding that they would not deboard the plane.
“Do you guys see what’s happening in America?” the woman asked, turning to fellow passengers.
“You didn’t like what he said, and now we’re getting kicked off a plane, and all of you all are gonna have to wait,” she continued, appearing to address a passenger in an adjacent aisle. “This is fuckin’ outrageous. You guys, we’re going to turn into China. It’s coming.”
She then referenced Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has made headlines as of late with his successful bid to buy Twitter.
“I love Elon Musk. He is the best. Elon, he is a fucking king cus the masked people in our row are kicking us off the plane,” she said.
The woman announced she would sue another passenger and the airline, as the man she was with quipped that he had “more money” than one of the other passengers.
The New York Post reports the man said a homophobic slur at one point but mostly sat silently as the woman spoke on the JetBlue plane.
The man eventually suggested they “get off the plane,” but the woman appeared to argue against it, adding that “it was free speech.”
The TikTok then shows an official unbuckling the man.
“Gene, we’re not getting off,” the woman said as she seemingly worked to buckle him back in before telling staff that it was their “anniversary.”
Eventually, the couple appeared to start deboarding as the man stood up in the aisle.
“We got to get off the plane because we’re Trump supporters,” the woman says. “Seriously, I really think that’s what it is.”
“If we get off the plane when we did nothing wrong, it makes them right,” she added. “It’s fuckin’ wrong.”
In the Tik Tok’s caption, @charlottedalessio asserted the passengers made “racist & homophobic slurs.”
The incident comes as the Federal Aviation Administration announced in an April 20 release that it would be making “its Zero Tolerance policy against unruly passengers permanent.”
“The FAA implemented the policy on Jan. 13, 2021, after seeing a disturbing increase in unruly passenger incidents,” the release noted. “Under the policy, the FAA issues fines to passengers for unruly behavior instead of warning letters or counseling.”
Earlier this month, the FAA handed out two record fines that approached six figures to a pair of passengers for their alleged “unruly behavior,” Breitbart News reported.