The former head of the CIA says something is fishy about President Donald Trump’s Air Force One switcheroo.
Leon Panetta, who formerly served as CIA Director and Secretary of Defense under President Barack Obama, appeared on MS NOW’s The Moment with Katy Tur on Wednesday to provide his take on the president’s decision to ditch his shiny new jet from Qatar.
Despite stirring up a commotion over the $400 million jet gifted to him by the Qatari government, which has raised security concerns, Trump declined to fly the plane home from Turkey on Wednesday, opting instead to fly on the classic VC-25 model of Air Force One.
The 80-year-old president explained on Truth Social that the decision was made to “honor our brave men and women of the Military” by displaying it at Mildenhall Air Force Base in Suffolk, England.
“Everybody is so excited, and we thought that they should be the first,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “For old time’s sake, we’ll be taking the former Air Force One, from Turkey to Mildenhall, a short trip that is totally worth doing in order to give our Great Military Heroes a chance to appreciate our beautiful new addition to the Air Force Fleet!”
However, Panetta, 88, didn’t buy it.
“You know, I’ve always been concerned about security issues with this kind of plane that’s built by another country, regardless of the fact that that country, we may have good relations with that country,” he said on MS NOW. “The fact is that for from a security point of view, you have got to be concerned that there are going to be efforts to try to gather intelligence.”
“I’m sure they’ve reviewed the whole plane, but as somebody involved with security, I would be very concerned about making sure that the president’s security is protected,” he added.
The Qatari luxury jet gifted to the president by Qatar has not been confirmed to be equipped with the same defense systems typically found on Air Force One, including protection against electromagnetic pulse attacks, missile-warning sensors, and secure communications.
The former defense secretary said that the only way to guarantee security is “by having that plane made in the United States... so that we can assure that the president is not only secure, but safe.”
Tur asked Panetta whether it was common for presidents to switch up the planes for Air Force One, even if only due to maintenance issues.
“It’s a brand new plane. If there’s a maintenance issue with a brand new plane, that raises even more concerns,” he replied. “I don’t think this is about maintenance.”
“This is a cover story of some kind to try to deploy one plane to Britain and have the president return to the old plane that was Air Force One there,” Panetta continued. “There’s more going on. I think the war in Iran may have something to do with it. He is in Turkey. It’s right next to Iran.”
“There does have to be some real concerns about the president’s security. Even he himself basically admitted the concern about his personal security,” he added. “So for all of those reasons, I think that a decision was made to try to protect the safety of the president.”
During the NATO summit on Wednesday, in which he announced that the ceasefire with Iran had ended, Trump seemed fearful for his life, telling reporters he was “number one on the kill list for Iran.”
“I’m their number one, because they’re scum, that’s the way they act, and that’s the way they’ve done it for 47 years,” he said. “But I’m doing what’s right for the country, I’m doing really what’s right for the world.”
However, he dodged questions about why he wasn’t flying the Qatari jet home, instead reiterating that they were sending it to “one of the big bases in Europe” to show it off to American service members.
“We’ll be going home by, uh, normal methods,” the president said.
