So all the news outlets are crowing about the old and the new "Air Force One", but security/aviation wonks all know that "Air Force One" (and "Marine One") is a callsign, not an aircraft designation.
So if the President snuck into a smaller decoy aircraft, what callsign did these planes use? Does "Air Force One" keep up the ruse over the radio as well? If this is the case, and considering how difficult it is to keep secrets secret, then how large of a circle needs to be "read in" about the true situation, in order to protect the right aircraft? What contingencies do they have if one of them is actually attacked... keep up the ruse?
Yes, I admit, we've all seen too many action/adventure films with complex decoy scenarios. It would seem that doing them in real life would just induce headaches.
Also, my father is totally convinced that Qatar loaded-up the new aircraft with bugs and surprises, and they won't in a hundred years sweep them all clean. I feel like maybe Qatar wouldn't be that nakedly stupid. I mean, the Russians were really coy about their gift of The Thing!
The President may well consider this some kind of daring exploit, and is proud of it. The article suggests that he was playing up the danger beforehand.
> When asked later by reporters why they had to keep their shades shut during the [decoy] flight, Trump said it was because they were “probably on a dangerous flight”. He went onto say: “But if I go, you go. Right?”
Is that... "go" as in travel, or "go" as in die alongside the Pharaoh in his tomb?
I assume it's "as in travel". Sounds like the usual Trump ego thing. "It's dangerous, but I know you have to follow me because that's your job to report on what I'm doing, so now you're in danger."
If true, this is really embarrassing. Have security standards really fallen that far, that we can't protect the US president in a more dignified way? That this story is even out there at all is an embarrassing low point for US competence and security. Amidst a ton of other incompetence and general displays of weakness from the US.
The Secret Service has a lot more to be embarrassed about in its recent history than this decoy maneuver, which seems to have been executed fairly well. And I really doubt it was a “cart” - it was probably the room sized catering containers that trucks lift up to the side of the plane.
It was, and the picture even demonstrates the size of these carts. The article even mentions as follows:
"The president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras, and then was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight, a US official told the Post."
Zero downsides except looking weak and like a doofus. The US is already looking super weak having given up the Strait to Iran for zero gain, and now begging them to just open the Strait up and publicly signaling that the nuclear demands could be dropped. Crawling around in catering trucks or carts to avoid Iran's threats is at best demeaning to the entire nation.
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.
> Crawling around in catering trucks or carts to avoid Iran's threats is at best demeaning to the entire nation.
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.
It doesn't matter what the reality is, but what it can be made to look like. The fact that Trump needs some stupid maneuvers is already a terrible look, after that it becomes a joke.
When it comes to national security, appearances matter a ton, and any president that doesn't understand that is putting the US at great risk.
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).
It's very important to realize that the rest of the world does not exist in the US's media sphere, and evaluates evidence in a very different way. Talking about how things went for Democrats has ~0 impact on the actual security implications of this, because the rest of the world is far more connected to reality than partisan politics in the US.
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.
I think the problem is that Iran is a threat well beyond its borders to the US, despite the US administration (and numerous unrelated morons) claiming the US won the war against Iran, that it was obliterated, etc.
This was a preemptive security move, and the president is still alive. Crazy people have tried to kill Trump multiple times already. Every minute of every day must be guarded, especially as the president travels.
The Secret Service is rising to the biggest challenge it’s ever had, and thus far it is succeeding.
Making "preemptive security move" to protect against supposed Iranian infiltration is what makes us look weak, when the extent of it is walking into a catering cart and moving to a different plane.
"The biggest challenge its ever had" are you serious? Crazy people tried to kill every president, remember Reagan? The only thing with "crazy people trying to kill the president" that's different is that people are pretending it's new rather than the norm for presidents.
But this is a state actor, not some "crazy person." That the US is letting it leak that this is in response to Iran, looks very weak, and it shines a light on the president being really weak with Iran on everything.
I remember a gunman that shot Reagan, yes. One gunman.
Trump has had the kid that shot up the rally ( and yielded the iconic photo ), the golf course gunman, the guy that shot up the annual press dinner and now the Iranians.
Do you remember it being as bad for other presidents? Provide reasons why, by my count Trump seems to draw the assassins out.
"Golf course gunman" was not an attack, but boy did they try to make a standard arrest like it was one.
Trump is a uniquely violent president, and polarizing president, that intentionally inflames as much violence as possible in the US, assuming it will benefit him. But that also means highlighting as much as possible any sort of thing that would not even leave a mark on people's memories.
Then going further back there incidents like bullets hitting the White House while Obama was in office.
Political violence is definitely increasing as polarization is increasing, and attempts to decrease polarization have failed miserably, so I expect more political violence levels in future years. But at least we are nowhere near the violence of the 1960s!
TFA says Clinton did something similar. I'm sure it happens more than we're told. The Secret Service is paid to be paranoid. Decoy flights and vehicles are out of the standard playbook.
The embarrassing thing isn't using an unmarked flight like Clinton did. That's totally normal, and not something I'd find unusual in the least. It's that shuttling around in a catering cart... Why would anybody ever admit it, even if true? Just baffling bad idea to leak that part of a detail.
Hiding in a catering cart is certainly unusual, I'll give you that. I'm having trouble deciding whether it's ridiculous or quite clever. And then reappearing on the original aircraft at the destination. I wonder if they got consulting from Penn and Teller.
Airports are an easy target especially with all that jet fuel around the place. If they dont get you on the ground they only have to wait a few moments and they can easy get the plane as it taxis or takes off.
The new technology wars should make it obvious that there is a considerable inbalance between missiles or other projectiles and systems to counter them.
That article was published July 16, 2024, before the election. Biden was in charge of US intelligence agencies when they claimed Iran was trying to assassinate Trump.
There is an interesting tell, they sent the old presidential plane. But then Trump flew onwards from England on the new one. The two planes are sufficiently different that they can't be mistaken for one another.
They are [flagged][dead] and yet they're right. The title has since been changed from "catering cart" to "catering container" and the image and caption clarify it as "catering truck". "Catering cart" and "catering truck" are completely different things.
