Trump said he was surprised five men arrested near RAF Fairford in a suspected bomb plot were freed on bail, and he would not have done so.
Five British men from London were arrested near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire after three vans holding barrels of material turned up about 350 metres from the base, then released on police bail the same day the case still sat under active investigation.
President Trump said he was “surprised” by that release and added he would “not have done so,” even as Counter Terrorism Policing stressed the men remain under stringent conditions and multiple lines of inquiry. Iran’s London embassy categorically rejected any link. Local residents were left with an empty village, a lasting cordon, and hard questions about how close the scare came to a U.S.-used air base.
The arrests unfolded in the early hours of Sunday around the village of Whelford, after a local farmer returning from a party found the vans blocking the road and saw hooded, masked men who fled. She called 999 at 1.36am after an MoD police line went unanswered. Armed officers reached the village within about ten minutes, and five suspects were rounded up within 25 minutes.
Police moved under the Explosives Act and then terrorism charges. Officers stripped the men amid fears of suicide belts. Eighty-five homes were evacuated. Residents later returned, but a cordon stayed around the three vehicles while overnight searches produced what officials called multiple new lines of enquiry.
Landing back in Washington from Illinois, Trump praised the cooperation and claimed the group had been under watch. He said the suspects were looking to do serious harm to what he called “our fort.”
Trump told reporters the operation was “fantastic,” adding: “Working with Britain, it was an amazing job. We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort, and working with the British worked out great.”
He went further on the suspects themselves.
Trump said: “We know all about them. You'll be hearing about it very soon. We caught them.”
On the partner agencies, he left the precise lead open: “It may have been Scotland Yard, I don't know. We worked with a lot of them. We had them under view for a long time, and we got them. Thank you.”
By the next evening, after the bail decision, his verdict was blunt. He was surprised the five had been released, and said he would not have taken that step.
Daily Mail reporting laid out the official line from Britain’s top counter-terrorism leadership as the five men, aged 23 to 25 and tied to Westminster, Camden, and Willesden in Brent, walked free on bail.
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor confirmed the release and refused to treat it as an ending.
"I can confirm that, following extensive interviews and inquiries, the five men who were arrested are being released on police bail this afternoon."
Taylor added: "To be very clear, this does not mean that the investigation is over. They are subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others."
He pressed the point again: "They absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of enquiry."
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, Counter Terrorism Policing’s Senior National Coordinator, described a large joint effort with local police, the Ministry of Defence, and other agencies. She thanked armed officers who arrived without knowing what they faced and asked the public for room to work.
"I am very aware of the levels of speculation about the motivation behind this incident and the geopolitical questions being raised. However, I ask that Counter Terrorism Policing be given the space at this time to carry out its work carefully and thoroughly."
Evans also said the disruption was real for local people and framed the police activity as a matter of national security and their safety. Gloucestershire Police said evacuated residents could return while the cordon around the vans remained. Testing indicated the material in the barrels was not viable explosives. Investigators still weighed hostile-state involvement, proxies, a hoax, a decoy, or a dummy run. No motive had been established.
The Iranian embassy in London “categorically rejects” any involvement and dismissed the reports as “unfounded and malicious speculations.”
The embassy statement went further, calling the claims “fabricated speculations” and tying the coverage to what it called aggression by the United States and Israel. It warned that such narratives would “fuel Iranophobia propaganda in the UK” and said Tehran reserved the right to take legal measures to protect its interests.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, speaking after a Cobra emergency committee session, said police and the security services had done what they could and should have done to contain the situation. He said ministers were “making no assumptions about the background and motivation of the arrested individuals.”
Streeting also defended the American presence at Fairford. “Having the US at Fairford makes us more safe, not less safe. Be in no doubt about that.” He said Britain must not be “cowed by sabre-rattling from Iran” or let Tehran “dictate our foreign policy,” while stressing it remained “too early to attribute background aims.”
The sequence did not begin with a polished raid announcement. It began with a farmer on a dark road.
Returning from a party around 1am, she found three white vans blocking her way, saw masked men run, and tried the MoD police number. It rang out. She dialed 999 at 1.36am, messaged the village WhatsApp group, and watched armed police pour in. She later said a “plucky amateur” should not be the one spotting odd activity at 1am when the air base was already on high alert.
She described the encounter in stark terms on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the following morning, saying the men likely panicked and thought she was police. She called it “pretty incredible” to realize she had brushed up against potential terrorists and may have helped stop a plot. “Thank God we spotted them.”
She also pushed back on official talk that she held only a “partial picture.”
"I know it's been said by some of the higher ups today that I didn't have the full picture, but the picture I had was three extremely unusual vehicles parked in the middle of our village and a group of unknown men running around. So, that's my picture, I don't know whether that's the full picture or not."
And she said no official follow-up had come, even though police had her number from the 999 call: "Literally nobody in any sort of official capacity has been in touch with me or anyone else in the village, no follow up at all, even now."
She claimed she may have seen more than the five men arrested and described some as “Middle Eastern-looking.” That remains her account, not a police total. She also said evacuation did not hit until 6am, hours after her call, and that the vans sat near houses rather than only at the base fence. Sources said SAS troops moved to the site from Hereford and that MI5 was working with counter-terrorism police to establish who was behind the scare.
Streeting praised her conduct and said she did what anyone would hope in that situation. He still held the line that she had only a partial picture and that he would not go further while the investigation was live.
Laura Stitt, a local businesswoman, voiced the anger in plain terms. She said the scare had been de-escalated very quickly from potential terrorism and that the arrested men had been allowed toward home before residents could fully reclaim theirs.
"The main concern is it has been de-escalated very quickly from being potential terrorism. The men arrested have been allowed to return to their homes before we can return to ours. There is an awful lot of police resources and taxpayers' money spent. There is a lot of confusion as to what it was about."
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, speaking to LBC from Edinburgh, said the farmer’s discovery itself raised questions. “If a farmer coming home from a party at 1am is the person that discovered these people, it does raise questions.”
Farage argued Trump was saying more in public about the security picture than Britain was hearing at home. “Donald Trump is telling you more about the national security situation and about what I privately know, than we, as a country, are being told.”
He called the moment “a very serious situation” and said the country faces cells of people who are enemies. “And that's why Trump's saying what he's saying.” In his words, Trump’s comments “verifies my worst fears.”
RAF Fairford is not a symbolic pin on a map. It is a working base tied to U.S. bomber operations, and the vans sat a short walk from the wire. Five men in their 20s are out on bail with conditions. The barrels were judged not to hold viable explosives. The cordon, the inquiries, and the unanswered motive remain. Iran denies every thread of involvement. Trump says the suspects were known, watched, and aimed at a serious hit on the base, and that turning them loose on bail is not the call he would have made.
When masked men and loaded vans appear outside a critical air base, the public is right to expect custody that matches the threat, not a same-day release that leaves a village wondering who the system is willing to gamble on.
