On its surface, the news that President Donald Trump secretly switched planes before departing Turkey last month because of a security threat from Iran might seem non-controversial — and even kind of cool, in a cloak-and-dagger sort of way.
But the story — which was broken by the Washington Post late Monday and later confirmed by CNN and others — does raise some very real issues and questions.
First, let’s recap the basics of the reporting.
It was already reported last month that, due to security concerns, the White House had scrapped a return flight on the new Qatari-gifted plane that Trump uses as Air Force One in favor of the older plane. (Trump had initially claimed it was so US service members could tour the new plane.) The old plane has better security features than the retrofitted, new plane. And given Turkey borders Iran, that precaution would make sense.
It’s now clear that Trump boarded the legacy plane, then was secretly transferred via a catering truck to a smaller Air Force C-32A. He flew that to UK, where he kept up the ruse by covertly re-boarding the old Air Force One, deplaning for cameras and then got on the Qatari-gifted plane for the return flight home.
