A shoulder-fired missile threatened Trump – dozens remained on Air Force 1 that became a decoy

According to American officials, information was received about a surface-to-air missile threat, and at the same time a man was found near the summit area holding a shoulder-fired missile. The Iranians also knew exactly where Trump stayed in the Turkish capital, including the floor in the building.

Following the assessment of the threat, the Secret Service and the US military activated an unusual deception operation. Trump boarded the old presidential plane in full view of the cameras, but was then secretly removed from it inside a container of a catering vehicle attached to a door on the other side of the plane. The president was transferred to a smaller C-32A military aircraft, which took off for Britain under a routine call sign.

However, surprisingly, that existential and immediate threat did not prevent them from sending the presidential plane into the sky as planned, with senior government officials, civil servants, journalists and military personnel on board. All of these were actually used as flying bait, and some did so without being aware of it at all.

If the Iranians did try to intercept the president’s plane last month, as US officials concluded at the time, then the secret exercise carried out in Ankara, Turkey, which was intended to protect the president, turned dozens of other people into moving targets.

However, the Trump team’s exercise in Ankara stands out as an exception. Not only because of the extraordinary deception, but mostly because of the way the obvious danger was communicated to others, and the fact that the incident was kept secret long after Trump was no longer in danger, according to the New York Times report.

“We went out of our way to ensure that the maximum number of people, especially civilians, would be protected and would not be used as human shields. They didn’t even think about it. For me, that’s the big difference.”

“I understand the concern for the passengers on the plane that was put down because it is the main target,” Hagin said, “but when you work in the White House or travel with the president, you take on a considerable level of risk. Exposing the operation would have put the president in real danger.”

The administration officials and reporters who traveled with previous presidents to war zones knew, of course, what they were getting into. On the other hand, those who remained on “Air Force 1” in Ankara on July 8 were not informed about the increased threat.

The journalists sitting in the back of the plane were instructed, while still on the ground, to keep the window blinds closed during the flight to Britain. Meanwhile, Trump landed in Britain secretly on another military plane, and was smuggled back onto Air Force One so he could get off in front of the cameras, as if he had been there all along.

President Trump himself rejected the claims. In a conversation with journalists on Tuesday evening, he said that he acted on the advice of the Secret Service, and claimed that: “I think the plane I actually flew on was at a higher risk, because it is more likely that it was the plane they were targeting.” This claim is in complete contradiction to the logic underlying the replacement of the planes in the first place.

Although the use of decoys is an accepted tactic by the Secret Service for the security of the President (as in the case of identical vehicle convoys), it usually excludes innocent citizens without their knowledge.