President Donald Trump was hammered Tuesday by the Jim Acosta Show over the “elaborate ruse” he staged recently by sneaking out of Turkey using a catering truck and “decoy” jet – a ploy that left journalists and his own staffers as “human shields.”
Last month, the White House claimed Trump had ditched his Qatari-gifted jet and instead departed Turkey on Air Force One, a decision experts chalked up to security equipment concerns. In reality, Trump had been “secretly shuttled” from Air Force One via a catering truck to an “alternate military aircraft,” The Washington Post first reported Monday.
The cause for the ruse was a supposed Iranian assassination threat, the Post reported, making Air Force One – and all of its occupants, including journalists and Trump’s staffers – a “decoy,” according to one U.S. official who spoke with the Post anonymously.
“Trump had already lied to the press about why they departed Turkey on an older Air Force One, telling them it was because Bribe Force One was sent ahead to be shown off for the troops when it was really due to an Iranian threat,” wrote Tommy Christopher, writing for ex-CNN anchor Jim Acosta’s Substack.
“Now, it turns out Trump wasn’t on that plane either – he was smuggled off the plane in a catering truck. That means the threat was serious enough to prompt all this rigmarole to protect Trump – which also means he was using the press corps and some of his own staffers as bait, as decoys, as human shields.”
Christopher went on to dub Trump as the “coward of the country,” with one political columnist arguing that the president had grown “increasingly paranoid” during his second stint in the White House.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheng defended the bait-and-switch maneuver when speaking with CNN Tuesday, Komu reported.
“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” he said.