After Trump switched planes, Air Force One turned top aides & journalists into unwitting decoys

Last month, US President Donald Trump went to extraordinary lengths to save his life from a potential Iranian attack, but in doing so put the lives of many others at risk.

For the return journey after attending the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey, Trump slipped out of Air Force One by hiding in a catering truck that supplies food and other essentials to the aircraft. He then secretly transferred to another aircraft, an Air Force C-32A, to leave the country.

But top US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is third in the presidential line of succession, remained aboard Air Force One along with other White House staff, military officers, and the full pool of journalists accompanying the president.

The situation essentially turned those on board into decoys for Trump, making them human shields in case Iran actually attacked the aircraft.

While Trump’s supporters have argued that the president’s security must remain paramount, others have pointed out that previous administrations also faced situations in which presidents travelled secretly or switched aircraft covertly. In those cases, however, they said that the White House ensured that those accompanying the president, including journalists travelling on Air Force One, were informed of such moves either in part or in full.

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For example, when then-President Bill Clinton similarly switched aircraft during a visit to Pakistan in 2000, the White House informed Susan Page of USA Today, who was part of the press pool travelling on the presidential aircraft.

“They just didn’t seem to give a second thought to anybody but the president and the few people who were with him. We went out of our way to make sure the maximum number of people, especially civilians, were protected and not human shields. They didn’t even think about it. And to me, that’s the big difference,” Joe Lockhart, who served as White House press secretary to Clinton during the 2000 Pakistan visit, told New York Times.

White House press corps pushes back

After Trump turned accompanying journalists into cannon fodder, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) held a meeting with the administration and asked it to “work with us on a protocol for handling extraordinary security circumstances in the future”, according to CNN.

WHCA President Jacqui Heinrich said she had received concerns from members of the press corps regarding press safety, the ability of the pool to maintain an independent record of the president’s movements, and the integrity and credibility of pooled reporting. She said she raised these issues in the meeting.

Following the meeting, Heinrich —a Senior White House Correspondent for Fox News— said in a memo to the pool that she stressed that keeping the pool in the dark as in Ankara defeats the purpose of having a pool.

Heinrich wrote that she conveyed to the administration that undermining confidence in the reliability of pool reports carries risks beyond any single incident and that, in an already conspiratorial information environment, uncertainty over whether independent reporting can be trusted can be exploited by bad actors seeking to sow confusion and undermine confidence in journalism, according to CNN.

Separately, Andrew W Marlowe, who wrote the screenplay for the iconic 1997 thriller ‘Air Force One’, starring Harrison Ford as President James Marshall, whose aircraft was hijacked, told The Times that Trump’s conduct in Ankara was the furthest thing from heroic.

“Now real life isn’t a movie, but given the circumstances, I’m not sure I could ever script a moment like that for a heroic main character. If the threat were that great, it’s hard to imagine the audience rooting for any character who would trade his own safety by treating the remaining civilians onboard as potential sacrificial lambs, especially without their informed consent,” said Marlowe.