President Trump Slammed for Secret Plane Swap That Left Reporters in Harm’s Way on Air Force One

President Donald Trump‘s secret swap of planes while leaving a NATO summit in Turkey has ignited a firestorm, with critics branding the move a cowardly stunt that put reporters and staff directly in harm’s way.

According to a report from The Washington Post, published on Monday, August 10, Trump quietly slipped off the newly outfitted 747-8 — the jet gifted by Qatari officials and since loaded with pricey security upgrades — and boarded a separate military plane instead, all while cameras caught him appearing to walk onto the older-model Air Force One in Ankara.

The switch, per the report, involved Trump entering a food cart built into the belly of the aircraft, which was then wheeled onto a catering truck and driven to a smaller C-32A jet, using the call sign “Reach 18.” The maneuver came amid threats from Iranian officials, who had placed a bounty on Trump’s head as the country mourned the death of Ayatollah Khamenei.

Per the report, defense secretary Pete Hegseth boarded the C-32A separately using ordinary stairs, seemingly to keep the flight looking routine, and journalists on the decoy plane were told to shut their window shades.

The maneuver took on a more troubling dimension for those aboard the original plane. That aircraft carrying reporters and some White House staffers had reportedly been flagged by the Secret Service as unsafe for the president — yet those on board were not told about those concerns or warned about the Iranian threat, the outlet reported.

According to the article, HuffPost White House reporter SV Date told colleagues and officials, “Trump was ready to let you die while he secretly made his escape.” Podcast host Tommy Vietor of Pod Save America mocked the maneuver too, saying it made the president look like a “scared little bh,” while commentator Ron Filipkowski needled Trump by praising former President Biden for “never hiding in a catering cart.”

X user Tom Joseph went even further, accusing Trump of putting other Americans at risk to ensure his own safety and blaming the president for the conflict with Iran. He posted, “Trump is a coward for using his fake Qatari AF1 jet filled with Americans to be a decoy appearing to have him on board, while he flew safely from Turkey to the UK on a military plane. He endangered their lives to protect himself. It was his incompetence that lost the war to Iran.”

The Washington Post reported that White House spokesman Steven Cheung said, “The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff.”

Cheung added, “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.”