LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It's the kind of cloak-and-dagger deception fit for a movie - the president of the United States facing an alleged threat from a foreign power secretly whisked away from Air Force One to fly on an entirely different aircraft. And yet it is not fiction. President Trump has now confirmed that's exactly what happened in Turkey last month.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, it's only up to Secret Service. I just follow what they'd like to do. So I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The concern was a threat from Iran. This is how Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe, who broke the story, described it to her All Things Considered colleague Juana Summers.
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DAN LAMOTHE: What actually happened is that the president walked up the external steps to the old Air Force One, waved to the cameras and then almost immediately, we're told, walked off the plane on the opposite side of the aircraft onto an elevated airport catering truck.
MARTIN: That catering truck then moved Trump to a nearby military plane. In a few minutes, we'll speak with a former Secret Service agent about the ways the agency protects the president.
FADEL: For more context on this, we're joined by NPR's Tamara Keith. Morning, Tam.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Morning.
FADEL: OK. So it sounds like the president's regular plane was ultimately a decoy. Did the passengers on that plane know what was happening?
KEITH: There were White House staff, military personnel, Secret Service agents and members of the press on the plane. The journalists thought they were flying with the president and were firmly instructed by the Secret Service to keep their window shades down, which is an unusual ask. I mean, the only time I've ever experienced that was on a secret Christmas night trip to Iraq with President Trump in 2018.
FADEL: What did the White House say at the time about Trump's trip back from Turkey to the U.S.?
KEITH: Well, Trump himself was later asked about the security precautions, and he made a joke about the press going down with him.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Were you aware of any credible threat by Iran against Air Force One?
TRUMP: I have a threat all the time. I'm No. 1 on their list before you. But if I go, you go, right?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But was there a specific threat today (ph)?
TRUMP: So perhaps someday, you want to change professions.
KEITH: The statement that day from White House communications director Steven Cheung is pretty telling in retrospect. It said, quote, "we use every tool at our disposal, including distraction and misdirection to address those threats." Little did we know just how much distraction and misdirection was really at play.
FADEL: OK, Tam. It's one thing to fly with a president you know is always a possible target. It's another entirely to unwittingly be on a decoy plane. And you covered the White House for a dozen years. As president of the White House Correspondents' Association in 2023, you were involved in planning the press coverage of President Biden's secret trip to Ukraine. How does this normally work? Is misdirection common?
KEITH: Yes and no. Take Biden's trip to Kyiv. Two journalists who I selected were brought along to witness that long and perilous train ride through Ukraine. Everyone was sworn to secrecy. Like, when I was brought in for the planning, they made me take off my Apple Watch. There's always been a level of cooperation between the press and the White House to make sure the president's movements are independently covered, including in high-risk situations.
Often, there are embargoes, so the information isn't released until the president is safe. But Trump and his team ditched the press entirely and went to great lengths to continue the ruse long after the immediate danger passed. The Justice Department even sent FBI agents to serve subpoenas at the homes of journalists who reported on the security concerns around that flight.
FADEL: And walk us through why this matters.
KEITH: White House journalists traveling with the president actually serve a function as independent witnesses, so the American people don't just have to take the government's word for it. This is something past administrations have understood and valued, and now in a time of war and rampant conspiracy theories, this matters even more.
FADEL: NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith. Thank you, Tam.
KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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