Trump Ripped by Reporters Used as Decoys in Secret Escape | Hacker News Reader

Trump Ripped by Reporters Used as Decoys in Secret Escape

thedailybeast.com

16 pointsjohnbarron7 comments

> ...reporters who thought they were traveling on the same plane as the president and were unaware of the risk to their lives.

Unaware that Iran might be eager to kill the leader of the Great Satan, in retaliation for the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader (by US/Israeli air strikes earlier this year) when Turkey and Iran have a 250-ish mile common border? And the weak defenses of some of the Air Force One planes have been in the news repeatedly in the past month?

I call bullshit.

To be fair, it’s not unreasonable to take your safety for granted when in the presence of the US president. I do find it odd Trump decided to go though.

I'd categorize it as "sounds reasonable, so long as you never actually reason about it":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presiden...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93#Targ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Iran_war

In that last one, glance at the map of "Locations struck" by Iran & Co. Notice how many of 'em are in Turkey?

The bit you quoted doesn’t capture why the reporters are upset:

> White House journalists are outraged that a threat credible enough to force Donald Trump to escape from Air Force One using an airport catering truck wasn’t relayed to them.

Point, however...

Assume you're the Secret Service's Grand Poobah of Presidential Protection. And actually trying to do your job. How, exactly, might you tell a gaggle of reporters that the President slipped out of the baddie's crosshairs, without a huge risk of them giving the game away? This ain't 1989, when their being inside Air Force One gave you total control over their communications with the outside world. And "President is in that slow, unarmored catering truck over there" may be all the targeting info that the baddies need.

Note too that "everybody else's lives are worth less than the POTUS's life" is right in that Grand Poobah's job description. And legal duties.

My guess: What actually has the journalists pissed is that they were reporters, sitting figurative feet away from a huge secret news story...and nobody felt they were worth letting in on the secret.

Exactly right? Why would anyone expect a competent security outfit to tell the reporters anything?

Later, Trump claimed (lied) that the decoy plane was less at risk of being attacked than the plane Trump secretly flew on [1]:

Reporter: > Why was it too dangerous for you to fly on Air Force One but not too dangerous for the press?

Trump: > Well, I don't know. I th- I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. I think it was at greater risk.

Reporter: > Why do you say that?

Trump: > Because that would be the plane I think that we- that they would be more likely to go for.

[1] https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3msu6ebxcpf2v

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