Trump hid in catering container as Air Force One flew as decoy
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- Trump stowed away in an airport catering container after a July NATO summit in Turkey to board another plane while Air Force One — loaded with White House officials, security, support staff, and reporters — flew as a decoy over what The Washington Post reported was a credible Iranian attack threat.
- Trump confirmed the arrangement Tuesday, telling reporters the Secret Service and military wanted him on a "different plane" and adding, "I just have to do what they say."
- After stopping in Britain, Trump sneaked undetected back aboard the decoy jet and boarded the luxury Qatari plane gifted to him, which the AP notes lacked some of the missile detection and countermeasure systems found on older presidential aircraft.
- The White House has neither confirmed nor denied the extraordinary measures, with communications director Steven Cheung saying only that "there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him."
- Unlike past presidential subterfuge — Biden's 2023 secret overnight train to Kyiv, Trump's 2019 Thanksgiving flight to Bagram, Bush's 2003 Iraq trip, Obama's 2010 Afghanistan visit — the secrecy here extended for weeks after the risk passed, with the press pool never informed.
- Author Garrett Graff ("Raven Rock") called it "an ongoing secret that I don't think we've ever seen before," warning that for a stretch no one outside the security detail could have independently corroborated who was in charge of the U.S. government.
Why it matters: By sending Air Force One aloft as a decoy without informing the press pool, the White House broke from how prior administrations handled similar operations — Clinton's team briefed reporters he was on one of three planes, and Bush's team never claimed he was somewhere he wasn't — leaving a window in which no independent party could confirm the president's status had the real threat materialized.
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