Is it, though? It was highly effective with basically zero downsides, and well executed. I’m honestly not sure what the problem is.
As for "highly effective" well..... Would have been far more effective if there weren't such loose lips that embarrassed the office. Seriously, lock that shit down.
This is probably a case of a presidency so weak that it doesn't even realize when its signaling weakness, and thought it was "cool" or something to do this, which is why they leaked it. Meanwhile our allies feel sad for us and our enemies laugh at us.
The article actually says "secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane via an airport catering truck". The picture shows the size of the truck. No crawling was involved; The Guardian just crafted the headline to make Trump look "weak and like a doofus" and you bought into it.
You see, it's very weak! That's why you don't let it out! That's my complaint!
I disagree, I think it matters what the reality is, but do what feels right for you.
Wars are started on appearances not on reality. Everything goes into managing it.
The US used to be viewed as a strong ally, but Trump has already made the US into a weak, unreliable ally. Being a weak ally makes the US weaker, because it greatly lowers the overall expectation of aid should the US enter war.
Now Trump is making the US look weak by letting leak rink-a-dink security moves, transmitting to the entire world that the President is scared of Iran, and willing to look weak when there are threats.
Contrast this with Zelenskyy going out on the streets of Kyiv when Putin was said to have teams of special ops out hunting to kill Zelenskyy. That's what strength is, and what leadership is. Whoever let this leak in Trump's administration did a grave disservice to the US (and to Trump too, but really I only care about the US, not any particular president).
I don't mean what matters to you or me, I mean what has proven to matter to the general population.
The rest of the world views Trump as weak authoritarian, with a tenuous hold on the country, that will trash the long term interests of the US for any short term personal gain he can achieve. Hearing that he's so scared of Iran that he's doing things like this significantly lowers the rest of the world's opinion of the strength of the US. That makes attacks and war far more likely.
Effectively using a plane full of people as a decoy, whilst believing there was a significant risk of them being shot down and killed.
An alternative would have been to keep the original plane grounded and feign some delay while the smaller plane made the trip. After signaling that the President had already been transported to the target location there would be no more danger for the original plane. This is of course more risky to the President, but it is a viable alternative.