CNN host Kaitlan Collins has aired footage of the unpresidential decoy vehicle Donald Trump used to make a secret flight switch.
The footage came after a bombshell report by the Washington Post that revealed the president made a last-minute flight switch due to an apparent Iranian assassination threat, unbeknownst to reporters on board the aircraft and some White House staff.
Trump, 80, was seen boarding Air Force One in Turkey in front of the media on July 8. Trump raised eyebrows at the time for opting to fly an older version of Air Force One rather than the new Boeing 747-8 jet gifted to him by the Qataris, which was said to have limited security technology onboard.
On Monday night’s episode of The Source, Collins aired footage of the elaborate ruse as it played out, beginning with Trump boarding Air Force One at 8:24 p.m.
Minutes later, the president then left the plane and entered, out of public view, an elevated catering truck, typically used to load passenger meals onto aircraft, Collins explained.
It pulled away from Air Force One at 8:30 p.m., taking him to the secret third plane, an Air Force C-32A .
Trump had been in Ankara, Turkey for a NATO summit with world leaders. The clandestine mission took place a night after America renewed military strikes on Iran.
The Post said the decoy initiative meant that Trump’s location was concealed from many U.S. officials and the American public for hours.
The publication reports there is still no clarity on how Trump got from the smaller decoy plane to Air Force One when it landed in London, before flying the Qatari-gifted plane home to the U.S.
“You see here the reporters capture the president getting off the plane that they thought he had just flown on with them to the U.K., and he’s seen coming down the stairs just before 11 p.m., Collins said.
Speaking on The Source on Monday, the Post’s National Security Reporter Dan Lamothe said he and his colleagues uncovered the decoy plane story after a tip-off from sources who thought “there was a hole in the public understanding here that needed to be clarified.”
“It’s unclear at the moment what exactly triggered them to take these extreme measures,” he said. “We’ve gone about a month now since it occurred, and until today, there was no public understanding of it.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
