President Donald Trump confirmed he secretly switched planes while leaving Turkey last month after a possible Iranian threat, saying the decision came from the Secret Service and military.
“It’s only up to the Secret Service,” Trump told reporters late Tuesday at Joint Base Andrews. “I just follow what they’d like to do.”
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Senate Democrats demanded a congressional briefing on the July 8 operation after The Washington Post reported that officials designed it to conceal Trump’s travel following an Iranian assassination threat.
CBS News reported that U.S. intelligence detected a credible Iran-linked plot to fire a missile at Air Force One as it left Ankara.
Trump said he was aware of a threat but “didn’t really ask too much about it,” adding that he receives “a lot of threats.”
What happened in Turkey
Trump boarded the older Air Force One in Ankara in view of cameras. He later left the aircraft concealed inside an airport catering truck and departed aboard a separate Air Force C-32A, while reporters and some White House staff continued on the original plane.
The White House had said Trump was aboard the older Air Force One. Trump had also posted that he would fly that plane “for old time’s sake” while the newer Qatari-supplied aircraft went to Mildenhall Air Force Base in England for service members to tour.
The plane switch hid the president’s actual location for part of the trip from the press pool and some people traveling with him.
Democrats demand a briefing
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Congress learned about the operation through news reports and demanded an immediate briefing.
“It is unacceptable that Congress was kept in the dark,” Schumer said.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, also was not briefed on the assassination threat or the ruse, a spokesperson told The Post. Schumer and Warner are members of the Gang of Eight, the congressional leaders who traditionally receive briefings on sensitive intelligence matters.
Republican congressional leaders did not respond to The Post’s questions about whether they knew about the operation.
The White House isn’t required to tell Congress where the president is.
What Trump said about the risk
The operation has raised questions about the safety of the reporters, staff and military personnel who remained aboard the decoy plane.
Trump pushed back on that concern Tuesday night, saying he thought the aircraft he actually flew on faced greater danger.
“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” Trump said. “Because that would be the plane, I think, that they would be more likely to go for.”
Robert McDonald, a former Secret Service official, told Time he doubted officials left the decoy aircraft unprotected and said he would expect U.S. or allied assets to have escorted or supported both planes.
How the Clinton comparison is different
Presidents have used decoy aircraft during high-security travel before.
In 2000, President Bill Clinton used a decoy aircraft during a high-security trip from India to Pakistan. Clinton flew in an unmarked plane while another aircraft with Air Force One markings also made the trip.
One difference in the Clinton operation was what at least one member of the press knew.
Susan Page, then president of the White House Correspondents’ Association and a USA Today reporter on the trip, said Clinton officials briefed her before the flight under off-the-record ground rules. She said they discussed the decoy plane and the safety of journalists covering the trip.
Page said she had not spoken publicly about the briefing for 26 years because of those ground rules, but decided to do so now because the ruse became clear when Clinton landed in Pakistan.
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