White House journalists are outraged that a threat credible enough to force Donald Trump to escape from Air Force One using an airport catering truck wasn’t relayed to them.
A bombshell report from the Washington Post on Monday revealed that an Iranian assassination threat against Trump prompted the operation, which was carried out without the knowledge of reporters who thought they were traveling on the same plane as the president and were unaware of the risk to their lives.
The 80-year-old president made a secret flight switch during his return trip from Turkey last month, leaving reporters and White House staff members vulnerable onboard Air Force One amid threats from Iran.
“When you sign up to work at the White House, even as a civilian, part of your job is to defend the president,” one White House reporter told the Washington Post, adding: “That’s not my job. I cover the president. Reporters take risks as part of the job, but not on behalf of the president.”
This isn’t the first time a president has taken extraordinary measures to ensure their own safety. In March 2000, Susan Page, a White House reporter for USA Today, was informed that a similar stunt involving then-President Bill Clinton would also be taking place, the Washington Post reported.
Before reporters and White House staff embarked on a flight from India to Pakistan, White House officials informed Page, then the White House Correspondents Association president, of the move, Page told the Post.
“They told me about the extraordinary security procedures being taken because of the dangers in flying there, including use of the decoy plane,” Page said. “Of course, the dangers threatened the journalists covering the trip as well as President Clinton.”
The difference is that twenty-five years later, every reporter on Air Force One was left in the dark regarding a credible threat to their lives.
“I haven’t spoken about this episode before, because of the off-the-record ground rules of that discussion,” Page, now the Washington Bureau Chief, told the Post. “But since more than a quarter-century has passed—and since the ruse became evident as soon as President Clinton disembarked in Pakistan—I think it’s OK for me to relay it now.”
“That the White House would lie to the press corps in its entirety about where the president is,” journalist and historian Garrett Graff told the Post, “That’s a new Rubicon that’s being crossed.”
Graff added that the fact that it was a credible threat that forced the White House to secure Trump “makes it all the more egregious that the press was kept out of the loop.”
Trump’s omission to the press corps comes amid attacks on press freedom itself, including his administration’s attempts to seize phone records from reporters and subpoena records of family members, according to court documents last month.
The White House has continued to insist publicly that Trump left Turkey on the legacy aircraft. Asked for comment, communications director Steven Cheung didn’t address the deception directly, instead defending the newer Boeing 747-8 gifted to the United States by Qatar.
“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” Cheung said. “As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have thei
