A New York Times photographer on Wednesday revealed several suspicious new details in President Donald Trump's plane swap amid a threat.
Douglas Mills, a photojournalist who was on Air Force One with the press corps as the group headed back from Turkey after a NATO summit in July with Trump and several administration officials, told CNN's Erin Burnett the incident was "alarming" after learning Trump had left the plane in a catering truck.
Burnett mentioned that Mills and other reporters were asked to lower their window shades. And in an interview with reporters after that flight, Trump had commented specifically on window shades.
"Probably on a dangerousflight because of the sleazebagsthat we have to deal with, it hasto be closed," Trump said. "Butif I go, you go, right? Perhaps someday you want tochange professions?"
Mills said that comment now has a different meaning.
"In hindsight, I think back onthat, wow, if he didn't, why did they just putour shades down and not his shades up in the front of theplane? So that was kind of a redflag to me mentally," Mills said. "I felt likeobviously we were adecoy. And in that moment, wedidn't know all the facts thatwe know now."
Burnett pointed to the window shades, asking if that was a potential giveaway that something irregular was happening.
"Maybe that'swhy they had to put your windowshades down, right? Because theydidn't want you to see thecatering," she said.
"That's exactly right," Mills said.
"Bythe time we got to the front ofthe plane, I had taken thosepictures of the catering truckon the backside of the plane aswe were motoring up," he said. "And I was shooting picturesthrough the van that we weredriving in. And once we got upand looked out and saw thepresident was already on board,that kind of also said to me something's going on."
This foreign visit was atypical, and Trump ditched his usual goodbye.
"But no, none of thathappened this time," Mills said. "He went upthe steps and was on therebefore we ever got out of ourcars. It was unusual. And then once we got upon the plane and the shades had to go down, therewere just a lot of questionsthroughout. And now inhindsight, it was oneof those things as a reporter,photographer, you know, that weprobably should have been askingmore questions about because a lot of things didn't fit right."