TOI correspondent in Washington: US President Donald Trump, commander-in-chief of the world’s greatest military power, was reduced last month to something closer to a VIP hors d’oeuvre when American security officials reportedly stuffed him into a catering container to spirit him out of Turkey.Trump’s security team, worried about a credible Iranian threat to his life, devised an elaborate ruse during his departure from Ankara after the Nato summit. According to The Washington Post and The New York Times, Trump publicly boarded the older Air Force One, in full view of cameras, but minutes later, the MAGA supremo and a small group of aides were secretly moved from the presidential aircraft in an airport catering vehicle and transferred to a smaller Air Force C-32A.That plane then whisked him toward Britain on a four-hour flight while the decoy Air Force One followed. The operation was apparently so secret that the White House press corps traveling with Trump didn’t know they were being cast in a presidential security drama as unwitting extras. Neither, reportedly, did many White House officials.The comedy, however, sits atop a very serious security concern. Trump has been the target of multiple assassination attempts and serious threats, making presidential protection an unusually grim business. The attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024 came within inches of becoming a catastrophe. Another armed man was arrested after being discovered near Trump’s golf outing in Florida two months later, and more recently an armed man tried to storm a White House Correspondent Association dinner where Trump was present.The Turkey stuffing has also raised questions about the $400-million elephant – in this case the Boeing 747 supplied by Qatar, which had become a source of controversy even before this latest episode. Some security boffins have expressed concerns about its suitability for presidential use, particularly because converting a foreign-supplied commercial aircraft into something worthy of the presidential fleet involves installing the highly specialized communications, electronic-warfare and defensive systems expected on Air Force One.The plane may have a palace-like interior, but according to security experts, a presidential aircraft needs more than chandeliers, leather seats, and room for a presidential ego. It essentially has to be a flying presidential command center, with communications, electronic warfare, nuclear-attack survivability, medical bells and whistles, and physical security all integrated into one system.Expectedly, Trump critics and Trump courtiers saw the Turkish takeout quite differently. “WOW! President Trump outsmarted Iranian threats in Turkey by jumping in a CATERING TRUCK to swap planes when the world thought he was on the legacy Air Force One. This is a James Bond style mission.” one MAGA minion gushed on X. Critics meanwhile lambasted the President for using White House officials and reporters as expendable decoys. “The guy who posts AI images of himself saving George Washington and fighting alongside Revolutionary War heroes hid in a catering truck while his own allies and the media boarded the plane HE thought Iran might blow up,” sneered one critic.The American president is arguably the most heavily protected individual on Earth. His movements are choreographed down to the minute; Secret Service agents sweep buildings, roads and rooftops; fighter aircraft can be placed on alert; communications systems travel with him; motorcades can stretch for blocks; and millions of dollars are spent ensuring that nobody gets close enough to make history for the wrong reason.Yet in Turkey, the ultimate presidential security measure was apparently to stuff him into a food truck, a reminder of just how bizarre presidential protection can become.And there is another historical irony. Every assassination of a sitting American president has occurred inside the United States, carried out by domestic assailants. Four presidents — Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy– were assassinated. Other presidents, including Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, faced assassination attempts or serious attacks.The threats have generally not required an enemy air force crossing an ocean or ambushing a Presidential aircraft. It has pulled off by an American with a gun.
