President Donald Trump has confirmed a Washington Post report that he switched planes for the trip back from the July NATO Summit in Turkey because of a threat against the plane he was supposed to take. “I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane,” Trump said on returning to Joint Base Andrews after a trip to Ohio on Tuesday. “I just have to do what they say.” The elaborate ruse resulted in dozens of reporters and some White House staff being used as decoys to get Trump out of Turkey under what was widely reported as a potential threat of a shoulder-launched missile attack by Iran.
Trump travelled to the summit on the Boeing 747-8i given to the Air Force by the Qatari Royal Family. When it came time to go home he told reporters they would fly home with him on a backup VC-25A, one of two that has served as Air Force One over the past 30 years. According to the Washington Post, he did the usual photo op ascent of the stairs onto the 747 but instead of heading for his quarters he went to an exit on the other side of the plane and got on the elevated box of a catering truck. The truck took him to a waiting C-32 (an executive transport version of a Boeing 757) and all three planes took off for RAF Mildenhall in the U.K. with the VC-25A carrying the Air Force One call sign even though he was on the C-32 (call sign Reach 18). On arrival, Trump somehow got aboard the VC-25A so he could do the photo op descent of the stairs. He then went up the stairs to the Qatari jet with the media and staff entourage in tow, most of them unaware they had not been in the company of the president on the flight to the U.K.
The details released on Wednesday did leave a few loose ends. For instance, as the ruse was being played out on the ramp in Turkey, the New York Times reported the original switcheroo was at the behest of the Secret Service and not for the reason given by the President that he wanted to show off the Qatari jet to troops stationed at the U.K. base. Several journalists were subsequently interviewed by Department of Justice officials in an apparent attempt to find the source of the leak. The investigation was dropped last week. Also, the increased risk exposure to the unwitting journalists and staff members on the plane that might have been a target of the Iranians has drawn criticism. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement the administration “has a responsibility to ensure that journalists covering the president are not unnecessarily exposed to danger.”
And if those same journalists had been told not to board they would have complained loudly especially since most of those journalists hate the current president! You can’t have it both ways.
I believe they do have it both ways. Personally, I’m sure most of those journalists despise the man. But professionally, they adore the man. If he were a soft spoken man of good character and leadership, he wouldn’t make the journalists nor their employers near as much money. From 2016 to the present, the corporate media has made record breaking profits thanks to our excellent choices at the ballot box.
Precisely. Everyone who boards AF1 is faced with the same exact danger as the President. It isn’t just the airplane that is called AF1, it is the entire Presidential entourage. If some entities want to attack the President of the United States, they don’t distinguish who is the President and who are the civilians. When the President travels, there are multiple airplanes and they are all at risk. The press are full of themselves.
The danger is not EXACTLY the same for the press. POTUS has a team of Treasury department workers protecting his body. Members of the press do not.
…the administration “has a responsibility to ensure that journalists covering the president are not unnecessarily exposed to danger.”
And all the while most of those same “journalists” subject the President to lies and innuendo. You can’t have it both ways.
You’re right: you can’t have it both ways, and a competent Commander in Chief would understand that.
This President denigrates American servicemembers, and in this situation sent the crew on a mission as human decoys.
Worse yet, he used his own staff, and journalists, as decoys in order to save his own life.
Seems like it’s never ending leaks from within and from without. Not good.
Unfortunately that’s what happens when you have an angry boss and disgruntled employees
I certainly hope that this place doesn’t turn into just another cesspool of political back and forth. Can we keep it about aviation and not politics?
Protecting the president is rightfully the mandate of the Secret Service, but the issue here is not about protecting the president. Rather, the issue is doing so without relegating other human beings in the form of VC-25A crew, White House staff and members of the press to the status of decoy. That could have been accomplished by sending the president on his way in the C-32 and delaying the VC-25A departure until the president’s arrived at Mildenhall by other means had become publicly evident. This caper could have been pulled off morally. Instead it was accomplished in the same manner as a Putin or a Kim Jung Eun would have done without regard for a VC-25A planeload of other human beings.
Or…Elvis has left the room! After he has.
Ah, another story about something with wings on it that ends in a political comment hackfest. 😆 One could think there is a system.