Yeah, I think he's trolling. When he postpones his arrival by hours and uses much manpower to do so, he's probably deliberately giving a false appearance of weakness, but how much more could this be explained from a position of strength. Probably there is someone he wanted to fool too.

Add: If it was intentional, he would not even have been on the first plane. If there is footage of him entering or exiting without opportunity of change, that would falsify it. But how much better to send a plane out into the wolf's lair without the president and then to plan to turn around whether or not a threat materializes.