Donald Trump’s longtime biographer has a hunch about who leaked his secret Air Force One decoy maneuver to The Washington Post.
Author Michael Wolff says he believes word of a covert Secret Service operation—to shield the president from a credible Iranian assassination threat—was ultimately made public by Trump himself.
“No one knows about it, and no one knows about most of these things that the Secret Service does for a very good reason,” Wolff said on Inside Trump’s Head podcast. “These are all security precautions... If people know about them, then they’re no longer part of the security protocol and no longer a safe part.”
“So people don’t know about this. The Secret Service certainly would not leak this,” he said. “So who leaked it? This is an easy answer.”
“Donald Trump leaked it,” co-host Joanna Coles chimed in. Wolff confirmed that is his theory.
“He has a method here. And the method is, more attention on me,” Wolff explained. “And also, there’s a theme here. The assassination theme has worked very well for Donald Trump. And I think that he wants people to know he’s the target. ‘I’m the main target. I’m the guy.’”
The White House did not return a request for comment about Wolff’s theory.
The Washington Post made the bombshell revelation on Monday, reporting that the 80-year-old Trump ditched his new Air Force One for a backup jet in a secret maneuver that even involved him being driven in a catering truck to conceal his movement. The article, authored by four reporters, cited “a U.S. official familiar with the operation and another person with knowledge of the president’s travel.”
The president boarded Air Force One in Turkey in front of television cameras after a NATO summit on July 8. Insiders told the Post that Trump was then informed of a credible assassination threat and he was secretly transferred to an alternate military aircraft, leaving some of his own staff in the dark.
Journalists and senior White House officials traveling with the president were unaware that a secret swap had taken place—unknowingly becoming a “decoy” on a plane that was not safe enough for Trump to fly on himself, the Post reports.
“This is both a kind of cover-up by the president and the White House and the Secret Service,” Wolff said. “And yet, once again, the White House press corps is missing the story.”
Coles added, “They literally were on the plane. And they must have thought, ‘Why isn’t the president coming back to talk to us?’ Because he always goes back to talk to them because he loves it. He wants them. He loves to insult them. He knows that will be the next story.”
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