Here are the facts behind Donald Trump fleeing Air Force One in a catering truck while leaving behind reporters, White House staff, and military personnel to fly on a plane that was under such a threat that they moved this president off of it in secret out of fear for his life.
1. Prior to the flight, Trump publicly announced that he would no longer be flying on his new Qatar plane. Instead, he said he would be flying on the old Air Force One to London.
2. It seems practically no one on Air Force One was told about this grave threat that required Trump to run away in secret to a catering truck to take another airplane to the U.K.
3. The plane flew, under this threat, with no one on board being aware of the situation, thus putting the lives of every person on that aircraft at risk. That included reporters, White House staff, people working on the plane, and military personnel.
4. This was kept shielded from the public, and we're only learning about it because of the work of reporters digging to uncover these details.
So, my question is this: Why did the plane have to fly at all?
If there was such a threat, why couldn't they have removed Trump, transported him to safety, announced that he had been moved because of a threat from the Iranians, and then had the old Air Force One fly everyone back home once it was no longer under the same threat because it had been made clear that the president wouldn't be on board?
They could have made any number of excuses for the delayed flight while they moved Trump to somewhere safer.
But they didn't.
Another question I asked in an earlier post: Why did Trump announce that he was flying on the old Air Force One at all? What was the purpose of that?
They could have moved him to safety, announced that he was no longer in Turkey, and then flown both planes back. Neither would have been under the same level of threat with him clearly not being on board either aircraft.
Was he hoping to make the old Air Force One into a target of an attack?
There's really no logical basis for why this president would announce that he would be on a plane he wasn't going to be on — while all those unsuspecting reporters, staffers, and military personnel flew on that same aircraft under such an intense threat that they wouldn't allow Trump to fly on it.
That's a question someone needs to ask — and have answered.
I'll say it again: This has to be a bigger story that can't just be swept under the rug like so many other scandals linked to this president.
Not only did Trump inexplicably announce that he would be on the old Air Force One when he wasn't going to be, but the damn plane never needed to fly under that high level of a threat to begin with.
They could have just as easily moved Trump out of Turkey, announced that he had arrived somewhere much safer, which would have likely removed the target from Air Force One, and then sent everyone home under much safer circumstances.
But they didn't.
Trump publicly announced that he would be on that plane, which was a lie, then scurried off to safety, leaving everyone else behind to potentially be shot down amid the threat of an attack.
Was this all so that Trump wouldn't look “weak” and like he was running from a legitimate threat? Was it to protect his shiny new Qatar plane? Was there some hope that an attack would happen that he could then use to improve his approval ratings and help justify further escalation of his war?
As cynical and morbid as some of those options seem, they all seem somewhat plausible considering how easy all of this would have been to avoid.
Trump never had to make any public announcement about what plane he would be flying on.
None of this had to go down the way it did, which quite literally put everyone on that plane in jeopardy—except Trump, who had been safely escorted and hidden away in a catering truck to be blown to safety.
And this president and his administration damn well need to answer for why it seems like every decision they made protected him — but put everyone else's lives at risk who were left on Air Force One, from reporters to staffers to members of the military, when all of that could have been avoided.
We cannot let this go and allow Donald Trump to get away with yet another scandal that absolutely no other president would be able to get away with.
Will DJT file a multi-billion dollar lawsuit over this story?
