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The “decoy” Air Force One that President Donald Trump was snuck off of was protected by U.S. fighter jets on its flight to the United Kingdom, a senior Trump administration official told Fox News on Wednesday.
The revelation pushes back on media fears the press corps and staff might have been left vulnerable to the perceived threat from hostile actors seeking to strike Trump’s flight out of Ankara, Turkey, last month.
The previously undisclosed security measure adds another layer to the extraordinary precautions surrounding the president’s plane swap, which left the aircraft normally associated with Trump continuing on to the U.K. without him aboard.
The press corps was joined on the “decoy” plane under U.S. fighter jet cover by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and were aware Trump was not on board, the official said.
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Staff and members of traveling press pool had been instructed to keep the window shades closed throughout the flight, preventing them from seeing the fighter escort.
According to a pool report circulated Tuesday, there was little indication at the airport that anything unusual was happening. The press vans were positioned far back in the motorcade, and photographers did not see Trump board an aircraft from their usual position beneath the wing.
White House staff and reporters boarded the original plane as normal, where bags of snack mix bearing the presidential seal were waiting for them.
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Once aboard, however, the press was told to keep the window shades down. A Secret Service agent later came to the press cabin to reinforce the instruction, according to the pool report. When a photographer briefly opened a shade, the photographer was quickly told to close it again.
A White House wrangler told reporters only that the closed shades had been requested by the Secret Service.
Trump said Tuesday night that the decision to switch aircraft was made at the direction of his security detail and the military.
“Well, it’s only up to the Secret Service; I just follow what they’d like to do,” Trump told reporters after traveling to Geneva, Ohio, for the Freedom 250 Patriot Games. “So I go by the Secret Service and the military.”
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“They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety – but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say.”
Trump also suggested that the aircraft he ultimately traveled aboard may have faced greater danger once the swap was made.
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“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” Trump told reporters on the tarmac Tuesday night after news of the switch became public. “I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for.”
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