The spin from the liberal media and Democrats (as always, pardon the redundancy) about actions the Secret Service took to keep the U.S. president safe during a credible assassination threat recently in Turkey has been that Trump basically left journos vulnerable to attack aboard a "decoy" jet while he was taken elsewhere.
The real story is that there was a threat from Iran to kill Trump, and of course the media have done their thing and made it about themselves:
So the USSS thought the threat against the president was strong enough to surreptitiously remove him from AF1.
— Jake Tapper 🦅 (@jaketapper) August 11, 2026
And then proceeded to let the plane full of White House staffers and reporters take off and fly back to the US.
🚨🎥 If the threat was serious enough that President Trump wouldn’t fly on the original Air Force One, why was the plane allowed to take off with reporters, White House staff, and crew onboard? pic.twitter.com/Evkf8cMFX7
— TMZ (@TMZ) August 11, 2026
Democrats are of course trying to get some narrative mileage out of the story:
It's "stunning to think that all those on the [regular] plane were sort of a decoy, and were not told that the president wasn't on board, and that the deception was continued even after he was safely returned to Washington. And that's hard for me to understand." —@davidaxelrod pic.twitter.com/V0TWp3fUkr
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 11, 2026
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The White House decided there was a threat so great that Donald Trump was secretly moved to another plane but they never told the passengers on Air Force One. Cowards look out for themselves. Leaders look out for their people.https://t.co/BcIYJEkrXb
— Captain Mark Kelly (@CaptMarkKelly) August 12, 2026
The talking points are clear. Democrats and their media water carriers would like everybody to believe that Trump made journalists (not to mention Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent) sitting ducks for would-be Iranian assassins.
Meanwhile we now know that the plane journos and a couple members of Trump's Cabinet were on wasn't exactly completely vulnerable.
Update on @realDonaldTrump departure from Turkiye. @pdoocy reports that the "decoy" AF-1 was flanked by fighter jets as it traveled to the UK
— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) August 12, 2026
The press pool had been instructed to keep their window shades down for the journey pic.twitter.com/CqSCPqQyHh
Many journos haven't been quick to mention that the jet they were on was reportedly flanked by fighter jets from Turkey to the UK, preferring to give the impression that Trump had them strapped to the fuselage of an unprotected 737 and flown directly over Tehran.
So Jake Tapper & Kaitlyn Collins were being over dramatic?? 😂😂😂 https://t.co/jLafJb11OK pic.twitter.com/htSFzNR7iV
— Kristi (@TheyCallMeNans) August 12, 2026
Shocker, right?
The story here is the Iranians tried to assassinate the President (again) not the media.
— Sallah Shabati (@kodkod87) August 12, 2026
The media always try to make themselves the story, and this one is no different. They could always fly commercial to assignments if they're worried about the potential hazards of covering the president.
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