Why the elaborate ruse Trump used in Turkey isn’t like other secret presidential trips

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents have taken secret overseas trips in the past for security reasons, with schedules and logistics kept classified until after the fact to protect the commander in chief. But not like the one President Donald Trump took in July. After a NATO summit in Turkey, Trump stowed away in an airport catering container to slip into another plane while Air Force One — filled with White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters — was sent into the sky essentially as a decoy, just in case Iran made good on a credible threat of an attack.

Upon stopping in Britain, Trump snaked back aboard the presidential plane undetected and scoffed when asked about potential danger. Right?” he told reporters — gliding past the fact that if the plane had been shot down, the president wouldn’t have been aboard. That Trump’s whereabouts were concealed then, and for weeks afterward, is believed to be unprecedented — even in a modern world where security-related subterfuge is not uncommon.

“We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places,” said Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.” “But this was an ongoing secret that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.” The White House hasn’t denied reports, but also isn’t providing details The president’s flight out of Turkey made headlines at the time because Trump had arrived aboard a luxury jet gifted by Qatar, which was not equipped with some of the same missile detection and countermeasure systems found on older presidential jets.

He ended up traveling in a smaller government aircraft from Turkey to the United Kingdom. There, he sneaked back onto the decoy jet, descended from the aircraft and boarded the Qatari plane. The White House hasn’t confirmed reporting on the extraordinary lengths officials took to protect Trump, which were first reported by The Washington Post, but administration officials haven’t denied it.

Instead, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, relied on similar wording that he used during the trip itself. “As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” Cheung said… The White House previously said the president left the summit aboard the older Air Force One.