By now I'm sure everyone is aware of how they played switcheroo with AF1 and a military transport out of Turkey. My first impression was that it was a badass play, like something you'd see in a heist movie or spy thriller or some such. But my second impression was WTF?, they used the remaining staff and press as bait? Sure am glad the threat turned out to be nothing. Can you imagine the fallout if the dummy AF1 plane had been shot down while Trump was flying safely, albeit incognito?
He's no James Marshall.
.
By now I'm sure everyone is aware of how they played switcheroo with AF1 and a military transport out of Turkey. My first impression was that it was a badass play, like something you'd see in a heist movie or spy thriller or some such. But my second impression was WTF?, they used the remaining staff and press as bait? Sure am glad the threat turned out to be nothing. Can you imagine the fallout if the dummy AF1 plane had been shot down while Trump was flying safely, albeit incognito?
Nope everyone hates the press. And Clinton did the same thing in 2000 on a trip to Asia when there was a threat of Al-Qaeda taking out AF1 with a missile. Dems had no issues then so why are you complaining now?
By now I'm sure everyone is aware of how they played switcheroo with AF1 and a military transport out of Turkey. My first impression was that it was a badass play, like something you'd see in a heist movie or spy thriller or some such. But my second impression was WTF?, they used the remaining staff and press as bait? Sure am glad the threat turned out to be nothing. Can you imagine the fallout if the dummy AF1 plane had been shot down while Trump was flying safely, albeit incognito?
Nope everyone hates the press. And Clinton did the same thing in 2000 on a trip to Asia when there was a threat of Al-Qaeda taking out AF1 with a missile. Dems had no issues then so why are you complaining now?
I don't recall the Clinton episode. Got a cite?
There are 10,000 things that are legitimate ways that Trump is a horrible human being and bad president.
This is an absolute nothing burger and I don't blame him one bit for this (and it was likely not even his call, SS probably forced him).
Can you imagine the fallout if the dummy AF1 plane had been shot down while Trump was flying safely, albeit incognito?
Get some help This as bad a case of TDS I’ve seen in months.
There are 10,000 things that are legitimate ways that Trump is a horrible human being and bad president.
This is an absolute nothing burger and I don't blame him one bit for this (and it was likely not even his call, SS probably forced him).
My only question is about how they played out the ruse. Once Trump was safely on his way, why couldn't they announce what happened so that the other passengers weren't sacrificed in an attempt to take him out?
I would imagine this type of thing happens often and we just never hear about it. Not sure why this is even news honestly.
By now I'm sure everyone is aware of how they played switcheroo with AF1 and a military transport out of Turkey. My first impression was that it was a badass play, like something you'd see in a heist movie or spy thriller or some such. But my second impression was WTF?, they used the remaining staff and press as bait? Sure am glad the threat turned out to be nothing. Can you imagine the fallout if the dummy AF1 plane had been shot down while Trump was flying safely, albeit incognito?
Nope everyone hates the press. And Clinton did the same thing in 2000 on a trip to Asia when there was a threat of Al-Qaeda taking out AF1 with a missile. Dems had no issues then so why are you complaining now?
I don't recall the Clinton episode. Got a cite?
Yes. That did happen, and it was in March 2000 during Clinton’s trip to South Asia, specifically when he traveled from India to Pakistan.
The details are actually pretty remarkable:
Clinton was in India on an official trip.
Because of extremely serious terrorist threats in Pakistan, U.S. security officials devised a deception plan.
At Bombay (now Mumbai), Clinton appeared to board a large C-17 military transport aircraft in full view of the press.
Instead, he walked around the aircraft and boarded an unmarked white Gulfstream jet parked on the other side.
A second Gulfstream with normal U.S. government markings took off as a decoy.
The decoy aircraft arrived in Islamabad first, while the real Clinton arrived separately on the unmarked plane.
So if you're asking whether there was a real instance of a U.S. president apparently boarding one aircraft but secretly switching to another, the answer is yes.
The Washington Post reported it at the time, March 25, 2000—not something that was discovered decades later.
One interesting distinction: this wasn't a spontaneous mid-flight plane switch. Clinton switched aircraft on the ground in India before flying to Pakistan, specifically as a security deception. The Clinton Presidential Library confirms the March 2000 India/Pakistan portion of the trip.
If you're asking because you saw a claim comparing this to the recent Trump aircraft-switch story, there is indeed a very close historical parallel.
My only question is about how they played out the ruse. Once Trump was safely on his way, why couldn't they announce what happened so that the other passengers weren't sacrificed in an attempt to take him out?
Because you wouldn't be able to give out that info until the president had safely landed at whatever destination he was going to (which in this case would have been several hours of time). Otherwise you've just alerted every hostile nation that there is a plane in the air that has the president on it and it is likely less defended than AF1 normally is.
If you are willing to make the other passengers on AF1 wait on the tarmac until the president had landed and then announce it, I guess you could do that, but that would actually annoy me more than this switcheroo because that's wasting the time of all those people (and it's not an insignificant number of other people usually on that plane).
Thanks. Was a planeload of staff and press aboard the decoy?
If you are willing to make the other passengers on AF1 wait on the tarmac until the president had landed and then announce it, I guess you could do that, but that would actually annoy me more than this switcheroo because that's wasting the time of all those people (and it's not an insignificant number of other people usually on that plane).
If the threat was deemed credible enough to require the plane switch for the President, then shouldn't the people left on the plane be considered as well? I'm thinking it would be a little more than annoying if they'd been shot out of the sky.
If the threat was deemed credible enough to require the plane switch for the President, then shouldn't the people left on the plane be considered as well? I'm thinking it would be a little more than annoying if they'd been shot out of the sky.
Yeah...any sense of annoyance might disappear when they tell you there was a credible threat against the plane. Even if you're delayed a day or so that's infinitely better than a search party looking for your remains spread across the countryside.
If the threat was deemed credible enough to require the plane switch for the President, then shouldn't the people left on the plane be considered as well? I'm thinking it would be a little more than annoying if they'd been shot out of the sky.
If the threat were that credible, the plane would have never taken off, period. It was an extra level of precaution, that's it. This is not something to get pissed off about (at least, not when compared to the smorgasbord of other things to be indignant about going on that deserve our attention).
If the threat was deemed credible enough to require the plane switch for the President, then shouldn't the people left on the plane be considered as well? I'm thinking it would be a little more than annoying if they'd been shot out of the sky.
If the threat were that credible, the plane would have never taken off, period. It was an extra level of precaution, that's it. This is not something to get pissed off about (at least, not when compared to the smorgasbord of other things to be indignant about going on that deserve our attention).