Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was moved off Air Force One after a trip to Turkiye last month because the Secret Service and the military wanted him on a “different plane” over what he described as a threat. Speaking to reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, Trump said he was not alarmed and gave few details about the operation.
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His remarks confirmed a Washington Post report that, after a NATO summit last month, Trump was shifted to another aircraft because of what the newspaper described as a credible threat from Iran. The move was kept secret for weeks. Trump also played down the unusual steps involved, including hiding in an airport catering container to board another plane while Air Force One took off as a decoy, and the risk to White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters who remained on the aircraft.
“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane,” Trump said, adding that he had little choice in the matter. “I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.” He added, “I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” and said the episode did not scare him. “I don’t worry about anything, to be honest,” Trump said. “Whatever it is. You know my attitude? Whatever!”
Presidents have often made secret trips abroad for security reasons, with schedules and logistics kept under wraps until they are out of danger. But the fact that Trump’s whereabouts were concealed at the time and for weeks afterwards is seen as unusual. Garrett M. Graff, author of Raven Rock: The Story of the US Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself – While the Rest of Us Die, said, “We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places,” but added, “this was an ongoing secret that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”
After being moved in the catering vehicle and put on another aircraft, Trump stopped in Britain and later got back on the presidential plane without being detected, according to the report. At the time, he brushed aside a question about danger, telling reporters, “If I go, you go. Right?” even though he was not on the aircraft that had served as the decoy.
Several details of the operation remain unclear. Trump’s departure from Turkiye had already drawn attention because he had arrived on a luxury jet gifted by Qatar, which did not have some of the missile detection and countermeasure systems found on older presidential aircraft. He then travelled on a smaller government plane from Turkiye to the United Kingdom, secretly reboarded the decoy jet, got off it and climbed back on to the Qatari plane.
The episode has also raised questions about the decision to separate Trump from the press pool that normally travels with the president to provide independent coverage. Graff said the presence of the White House press corps is about protecting “the presidency and democracy” as much as covering events. “This shows that the White House just fundamentally doesn’t understand how important that role is,” he said.
US presidents have taken covert and risky trips before, but with different arrangements. In 2023, Joe Biden flew to Poland on an Air Force C-32 and then made a secret overnight train journey to Kyiv, while two journalists travelled with him and documented the visit. In 2019, during Trump’s first term, officials used a separate press pool and a decoy plane in Florida while he secretly travelled to Afghanistan, where reporters on the trip covered his visit to Bagram. George W. Bush’s 2003 Iraq trip and Barack Obama’s 2010 Afghanistan visit were also kept quiet until they were safely under way or over.
There have also been cases of presidential misdirection. Bill Clinton secretly travelled from India to Pakistan in 2000 after appearing to board one military aircraft and then slipping on to another nearby; both planes took off, along with a third painted like Air Force One. Joe Lockhart, Clinton’s former press secretary, said reporters had been briefed in advance and knew Clinton would not be on their plane. “There was no attempt to hide anything, much less lie about it later,” he wrote on social media. On September 11, 2001, Bush’s location was kept secret as he was moved between bases before returning to Washington, but the White House did not suggest he was somewhere he was not. Graff said, “You can imagine the different ways that this could have gone wrong, where, for a period of time, no one would have been able to independently corroborate the status of the US president, or who was in charge of the US government. And that’s an incredibly dangerous moment for the world.”
In sum, Trump has confirmed that he was moved on to another plane because of a threat during his trip from Turkiye, while dismissing concern over the episode. The secrecy around the operation, especially his separation from the press pool and the delay in revealing what happened, has made it stand out from earlier covert presidential travel.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
