Trump Hid In A Crate When He Left NATO Summit

ThatOwlWoman said:
Oh, and Marcos Rubio and Bessent, two of his cabinet heads. Someone on the news said "That's what they all signed up for." Um, no -- I don't think anyone signed up to be the slow duck in the video game.
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Fat frumpy Fuck Face Fowl should fry in a fire, as long as I'm not downwind. Imagine the smell.

Did President Trump "leave Marcos (sic) Rubio and Bessent, two of his cabinet heads" "to be blown out of the sky?"


No. The framing that Trump deliberately “left [Marco] Rubio and Bessent… to be blown out of the sky” is a partisan exaggeration of a real security operation.


In early July 2026, after a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, U.S. officials detected what they assessed as a credible Iranian (or Iranian-proxy) threat involving a possible surface-to-air / shoulder-fired missile targeting the presidential aircraft. Trump publicly boarded the older Air Force One in view of cameras, then was covertly moved via an elevated catering truck to a smaller, nondescript C-32A military jet. That plane flew him (and a small group including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and close aides such as Dan Scavino, Natalie Harp, and Walt Nauta) out of Turkey. The original Air Force One continued as a decoy, carrying the traveling press pool and others.


Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained on the decoy aircraft, along with aides including Stephen Miller and Steven Cheung. Multiple reports (New York Times, CBS, Reuters, BBC, etc.) confirm this. Rubio was aware of the threat and the switch; sources indicate Bessent and Rubio stayed behind in part to preserve continuity in the presidential line of succession (Secretary of State is fourth overall after the Vice President, Speaker, and President pro tempore; Treasury is next). The press pool was not informed and flew as unknowing participants in the ruse. No attack occurred. Trump later publicly attributed the plane switch to Secret Service and military recommendations.


The operation was a last-minute security measure driven by the assessed threat, not a plot to sacrifice Cabinet members. Critics have highlighted the risks to those left on the decoy plane (and the press), and some coverage uses inflammatory language. Trump has downplayed any differential risk, suggesting the plane he actually flew might have been the higher-profile target in the eyes of potential attackers. The core facts of the switch and who was on which aircraft are well-sourced across outlets; the “left them to be blown out of the sky” characterization is rhetorical spin, not a neutral description of the reported events.


 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Oh, and Marcos Rubio and Bessent, two of his cabinet heads. Someone on the news said "That's what they all signed up for." Um, no -- I don't think anyone signed up to be the slow duck in the video game.
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I doubt they signed up for it, but if they had thought about it, they would have known they would be thrown under a bus if it ever benefited Trump.
 
Jarod said:
Not just his children, his wives, or his parents, or really ANYONE.
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Hawkeye10 said:
I heard today that two people got off with Trump.....the woman who is sometimes called the diaper bag girl and some guy.....an empire security expert I think.
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ThatOwlWoman said:
Oh, and Marcos Rubio and Bessent, two of his cabinet heads. Someone on the news said "That's what they all signed up for." Um, no -- I don't think anyone signed up to be the slow duck in the video game.
Click to expand...

Jarod said:
I doubt they signed up for it, but if they had thought about it, they would have known they would be thrown under a bus if it ever benefited Trump.
Click to expand...

Cypress said:
I'm convinced Trump would throw his children under the bus to save his own skin.
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Jarod said:
Not just his children, his wives, or his parents, or really ANYONE.
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How these things are handled are a reflection of the POTUS in charge and if he is a self centered coward you get what we saw with Trump.

You can see below how other POTUS handled such situations...

----------

Bill Clinton’s March 2000 trip to Pakistan. Following the exposure of Donald Trump’s secret plane-swap in Turkey—where he hid in a catering truck to board a separate military aircraft, leaving staff and reporters on Air Force One as an unwitting decoy—veteran journalists and historians have pointed out how past administrations handled similar threats differently. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Past presidents have handled extreme travel threats with distinct tactical and ethical differences: [1, 2]

1. Bill Clinton (Pakistan, 2000)
In March 2000, President Clinton faced severe security threats when traveling from India to Pakistan following the Kargil War. The Secret Service enacted an elaborate deception: [1, 2]
  • The Tactic: Clinton publicly walked toward the door of a military aircraft, shaking hands with dignitaries to make it look like he was boarding. Instead, he slipped around the front of the aircraft and boarded an unmarked white jet parked nearby. The traditional Air Force One flew ahead as the decoy, landing in front of waiting media while a Secret Service agent dressed to resemble Clinton emerged from the plane. On the ground, the Secret Service deployed six identical presidential limousines to further obscure which vehicle he was in. [1, 2, 3]
  • The Key Difference: According to Susan Page, the USA Today journalist who was president of the White House Correspondents’ Association at the time, the White House brought the press leadership into an off-the-record briefing before the operation. They explicitly told the press about the danger and the incoming security procedures. [1, 2, 3]

2. George W. Bush (Iraq, 2003)
For the famous Thanksgiving 2003 surprise trip to visit troops in Baghdad, the threat of the plane being shot down by insurgents was exceptionally high. [1]
  • The Tactic: To maintain total operational security, Bush sneaked off his compound in Texas, wore a baseball cap over his face, and used an unmarked vehicle to board Air Force One in secrecy. [1]
  • The Key Difference: The journalists selected for the trip were fully informed of the immense risk before they even boarded. They volunteered for the mission, were forced to surrender all cell phones and pagers, and knew exactly what the security protocols were. No one was left behind on a "decoy" plane without their knowledge. [1, 2, 3]

3. Barack Obama (Afghanistan, 2012)
President Obama made a highly classified midnight trip to Kabul to sign a strategic partnership agreement.
  • The Tactic: Air Force One took off from Joint Base Andrews in total darkness with all interior lights off and window shades pulled down to avoid detection by ground spotters. [1, 2, 3]
  • The Key Difference: While the public and the broader press corps were kept in the dark until he landed, the press pool traveling on the aircraft was entirely aware that they were flying into a war zone under a media blackout. [1, 2]

Why the Trump Incident is Being Treated Differently
National security and journalism experts note that Trump’s ruse represents a massive departure from standard presidential protocols: [1, 2]
  • Total Deception of Staff and Press: Unlike Clinton, Bush, or Obama, the Trump White House never informed the traveling press pool or several key staffers about the switch. Reporters were ordered to pull their window shades down, unknowingly sitting on what the Secret Service was actively treating as a high-risk target for an Iranian missile strike. [, 2, 3, 4]
  • The Aftermath: Former CIA Director John Brennan and media ethics experts noted that past administrations abided by an "ethical requirement" to inform the press pool if they were being placed in life-threatening danger, rather than using them as human bait to draw attention away from the commander-in-chief. [1, 4]
 
QP! said:
How these things are handled are a reflection of the POTUS in charge and if he is a self centered coward you get what we saw with Trump.

You can see below how other POTUS handled such situations...

----------

Bill Clinton’s March 2000 trip to Pakistan. Following the exposure of Donald Trump’s secret plane-swap in Turkey—where he hid in a catering truck to board a separate military aircraft, leaving staff and reporters on Air Force One as an unwitting decoy—veteran journalists and historians have pointed out how past administrations handled similar threats differently. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Past presidents have handled extreme travel threats with distinct tactical and ethical differences: [1, 2]

1. Bill Clinton (Pakistan, 2000)
In March 2000, President Clinton faced severe security threats when traveling from India to Pakistan following the Kargil War. The Secret Service enacted an elaborate deception: [1, 2]
  • The Tactic: Clinton publicly walked toward the door of a military aircraft, shaking hands with dignitaries to make it look like he was boarding. Instead, he slipped around the front of the aircraft and boarded an unmarked white jet parked nearby. The traditional Air Force One flew ahead as the decoy, landing in front of waiting media while a Secret Service agent dressed to resemble Clinton emerged from the plane. On the ground, the Secret Service deployed six identical presidential limousines to further obscure which vehicle he was in. [1, 2, 3]
  • The Key Difference: According to Susan Page, the USA Today journalist who was president of the White House Correspondents’ Association at the time, the White House brought the press leadership into an off-the-record briefing before the operation. They explicitly told the press about the danger and the incoming security procedures. [1, 2, 3]

2. George W. Bush (Iraq, 2003)
For the famous Thanksgiving 2003 surprise trip to visit troops in Baghdad, the threat of the plane being shot down by insurgents was exceptionally high. [1]
  • The Tactic: To maintain total operational security, Bush sneaked off his compound in Texas, wore a baseball cap over his face, and used an unmarked vehicle to board Air Force One in secrecy. [1]
  • The Key Difference: The journalists selected for the trip were fully informed of the immense risk before they even boarded. They volunteered for the mission, were forced to surrender all cell phones and pagers, and knew exactly what the security protocols were. No one was left behind on a "decoy" plane without their knowledge. [1, 2, 3]

3. Barack Obama (Afghanistan, 2012)
President Obama made a highly classified midnight trip to Kabul to sign a strategic partnership agreement.
  • The Tactic: Air Force One took off from Joint Base Andrews in total darkness with all interior lights off and window shades pulled down to avoid detection by ground spotters. [1, 2, 3]
  • The Key Difference: While the public and the broader press corps were kept in the dark until he landed, the press pool traveling on the aircraft was entirely aware that they were flying into a war zone under a media blackout. [1, 2]

Why the Trump Incident is Being Treated Differently
National security and journalism experts note that Trump’s ruse represents a massive departure from standard presidential protocols: [1, 2]
  • Total Deception of Staff and Press: Unlike Clinton, Bush, or Obama, the Trump White House never informed the traveling press pool or several key staffers about the switch. Reporters were ordered to pull their window shades down, unknowingly sitting on what the Secret Service was actively treating as a high-risk target for an Iranian missile strike. [, 2, 3, 4]
  • The Aftermath: Former CIA Director John Brennan and media ethics experts noted that past administrations abided by an "ethical requirement" to inform the press pool if they were being placed in life-threatening danger, rather than using them as human bait to draw attention away from the commander-in-chief. [1, 4]
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Great research. Thanks.

More confirmation that the PaperTiger-in-Chief is not only orange, he's yellow.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Great research. Thanks.

More confirmation that the PaperTiger-in-Chief is not only orange, he's yellow.
Click to expand...
I am not saying this to be mean to Trump or because i do not like him but it is clear he is both a narcissist and a coward. That leads him to both, not even consider the lives of others as he only thinks about himself, but also to run away and leave others who support him behind.

af6025914f8f5289e317e724f61bfc92.gif
 
QP! said:
How these things are handled are a reflection of the POTUS in charge and if he is a self centered coward you get what we saw with Trump.

You can see below how other POTUS handled such situations...

----------

Bill Clinton’s March 2000 trip to Pakistan. Following the exposure of Donald Trump’s secret plane-swap in Turkey—where he hid in a catering truck to board a separate military aircraft, leaving staff and reporters on Air Force One as an unwitting decoy—veteran journalists and historians have pointed out how past administrations handled similar threats differently. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Past presidents have handled extreme travel threats with distinct tactical and ethical differences: [1, 2]

1. Bill Clinton (Pakistan, 2000)
In March 2000, President Clinton faced severe security threats when traveling from India to Pakistan following the Kargil War. The Secret Service enacted an elaborate deception: [1, 2]
  • The Tactic: Clinton publicly walked toward the door of a military aircraft, shaking hands with dignitaries to make it look like he was boarding. Instead, he slipped around the front of the aircraft and boarded an unmarked white jet parked nearby. The traditional Air Force One flew ahead as the decoy, landing in front of waiting media while a Secret Service agent dressed to resemble Clinton emerged from the plane. On the ground, the Secret Service deployed six identical presidential limousines to further obscure which vehicle he was in. [1, 2, 3]
  • The Key Difference: According to Susan Page, the USA Today journalist who was president of the White House Correspondents’ Association at the time, the White House brought the press leadership into an off-the-record briefing before the operation. They explicitly told the press about the danger and the incoming security procedures. [1, 2, 3]

2. George W. Bush (Iraq, 2003)
For the famous Thanksgiving 2003 surprise trip to visit troops in Baghdad, the threat of the plane being shot down by insurgents was exceptionally high. [1]
  • The Tactic: To maintain total operational security, Bush sneaked off his compound in Texas, wore a baseball cap over his face, and used an unmarked vehicle to board Air Force One in secrecy. [1]
  • The Key Difference: The journalists selected for the trip were fully informed of the immense risk before they even boarded. They volunteered for the mission, were forced to surrender all cell phones and pagers, and knew exactly what the security protocols were. No one was left behind on a "decoy" plane without their knowledge. [1, 2, 3]

3. Barack Obama (Afghanistan, 2012)
President Obama made a highly classified midnight trip to Kabul to sign a strategic partnership agreement.
  • The Tactic: Air Force One took off from Joint Base Andrews in total darkness with all interior lights off and window shades pulled down to avoid detection by ground spotters. [1, 2, 3]
  • The Key Difference: While the public and the broader press corps were kept in the dark until he landed, the press pool traveling on the aircraft was entirely aware that they were flying into a war zone under a media blackout. [1, 2]

Why the Trump Incident is Being Treated Differently
National security and journalism experts note that Trump’s ruse represents a massive departure from standard presidential protocols: [1, 2]
  • Total Deception of Staff and Press: Unlike Clinton, Bush, or Obama, the Trump White House never informed the traveling press pool or several key staffers about the switch. Reporters were ordered to pull their window shades down, unknowingly sitting on what the Secret Service was actively treating as a high-risk target for an Iranian missile strike. [, 2, 3, 4]
  • The Aftermath: Former CIA Director John Brennan and media ethics experts noted that past administrations abided by an "ethical requirement" to inform the press pool if they were being placed in life-threatening danger, rather than using them as human bait to draw attention away from the commander-in-chief. [1, 4]
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Trump broke tradition by letting his staff become unwitting assassination decoys.

It would have taken Trump five minutes to place a call from the McDonald's vending cart he was hiding in to his chief of staff ordering her to let people on the plane know the risk, and ordering them not to tell anyone else for at least 48 hours.
 
Cypress said:
Trump broke tradition by letting his staff become unwitting assassination decoys.
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Is that so?

President Bill Clinton’s March 25, 2000, brief stop in Pakistan:


The well-documented elaborate measures, driven by serious concerns about attacks by Islamist militants (including possible surface-to-air missiles linked to groups connected to Osama bin Laden/al-Qaeda), focused on aircraft and ground vehicle deception:


  • Clinton’s team used a decoy aircraft. At Mumbai (then Bombay), he appeared headed toward a large U.S. military C-17 transport but instead boarded one of two smaller Gulfstream/C-20 executive jets—an unmarked (or plain/off-white) one—while Secret Service personnel took a marked plane that continued as the decoy.
  • In Islamabad, the marked decoy jet (sometimes described with Air Force One-style markings) landed first in view of the media and waiting officials. A Secret Service agent resembling Clinton emerged. Shortly afterward, the unmarked plane carrying the real president (and a small entourage including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) landed separately.
  • On the ground, multiple identical black limousines were used to further obscure which vehicle carried him. Roads were cleared, the central city area was emptied of crowds, and other tight precautions were in place.

Contemporary reporting (Washington Post, UPI, New York Post, etc.) and later accounts (including Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars and Taylor Branch’s The Clinton Tapes) consistently describe the plane switch, lookalike, and limos. Fears centered on militants potentially targeting a conspicuous presidential aircraft with Stingers or similar weapons, plus broader risks in Pakistan given al-Qaeda ties and the post-coup environment under Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Cypress said:
It would have taken Trump five minutes to place a call from the McDonald's vending cart he was hiding in to his chief of staff ordering her to let people on the plane know the risk, and ordering them not to tell anyone else for at least 48 hours.
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What "McDonald's vending cart"?

The reason the others on the legacy Air Force One were not told about the threat and evacuated is that doing so would have defeated the entire purpose of the operation.


This was a deception operation, not a routine security upgrade. The goal was to make any potential attackers believe the president was still on that plane. For the decoy to work:


  1. The plane had to look and behave like a normal presidential flight (call sign, schedule, passenger load, visible activity).
  2. The switch had to stay secret in real time. Telling a large group of people — press pool + staff + others — creates an immediate risk of leaks, chatter, phone activity, or visible changes that could tip off adversaries watching the airport or monitoring communications.
  3. Emptying or partially emptying the plane would have been an obvious signal that something was wrong. An aircraft that suddenly unloads most of its passengers or sits empty while a smaller jet departs nearby would undermine the ruse.

Presidential protection doctrine treats the president as the primary protectee. Contingency plans are built around extracting the principal first and maintaining operational security. That is standard, not unique to this administration. The same logic applied in the well-documented 2000 Clinton Pakistan arrival, where a decoy aircraft was used and only limited prior notification was given to press leadership — not a full public evacuation of everyone else.


There are also practical constraints at a foreign airport under a credible threat assessment: suddenly evacuating dozens of people, arranging alternative secure transport for them, and doing it without broadcasting the change is far more complicated and time-sensitive than moving one principal and a small trusted group via a catering truck.


In short:They weren’t told and evacuated because the deception required the plane to continue looking occupied and routine. Informing and removing everyone would have made the decoy useless. That is why the operation was structured the way it was.


You can point out that criticizing the choice to prioritize the president’s extraction is fair game as a policy debate — but claiming they “weren’t allowed” to leave as if they were deliberately sacrificed after being informed is not what the reporting shows. Most of them simply weren’t told, which is how these operations are designed to function.
 
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