[00:00] We have some genuinely double-07 style intrigue involving the current President of the United States, Donald Trump. Remember this strange story from a few weeks ago? President Trump was leaving the NATO summit in Turkey headed for the UK when suddenly he announced that he wasn't going to fly on his shiny new Qatari gifted Air Force One 747. Well, instead Trump said that he was switching back to the old Air Force One. He said for old time's sake. Nobody
[00:31] believed that, but we didn't have the story. Until now. Because this this was happening in the middle of a war with Iran. Everybody just assumed there was some sort of a threat and just to be on the safe side uh the switch was made. There were already reports that the president's new Qatari jet didn't yet have all of the defensive uh communications capabilities of the old Air Force One. When reporters raised those questions, the White House just went ballistic. White House
[01:01] communications director Steven Cheung attacked reporter uh Carol Lennig saying this, quote, "Carol Lennig is a liar and this article is complete fake news. She has no idea what she's talking about." Unquote. That's not very nice. Well, it turns out that the truth was considerably crazier than what was being reported at the time. And now we have video of the transfer. According to new reporting from the Washington Post,
[01:33] US officials were worried about what they called a credible Iranian threat against Trump or against his aircraft. So, they didn't just switch Trump's plane. They used an airport catering truck to secretly shuffle Trump onto a smaller plane after he boarded Air Force One in view of the television cameras. We're going to break this down. Let's look at this this uh video. >> It sounds like a scene from a movie.
[02:04] >> The old one. >> President Donald Trump was secretly moved off of Air Force One in an airport catering truck and transported to a different plane without the world knowing. The Washington Post broke the story Monday night reporting that the ruse happened after the NATO summit in Turkey. Photos released Tuesday from the press pool traveling with the president that day show three US government planes on the tarmac in Ankara, Turkey. The new Air Force One that Qatar gifted to the president, a legacy Air Force One that has flown presidents for decades, and a smaller jet in the back that apparently
[02:37] took center stage. The post reports that in Ankara, Trump boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras. He was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane, an Air Force C-32A via an airport catering truck. The New York Times later reported that after Mr. Trump arrived in Britain, he was secretly moved back to the older version of Air Force One. He then disembarked in view of reporters and walked across the tarmac to the plane donated by Qatar, which he flew to Washington. Security officials
[03:08] reportedly thought the secret plane change was necessary because of a potential threat against the president by Iran. The traveling press pool was not told about the deception, meaning they incorrectly thought the president was on the old Air Force One with them. >> In this particular case, it sure looks like the press White House staffers, the military members on board the plane were potentially sitting ducks in a case like this. >> After the president boarded the Qatari Air Force One in Britain later that night, he was asked about concerns over Iranian threats.
[03:39] >> I'm number one on their list before you. But if I go, you go. >> It's not the first time a president was covertly transported, though it's unusual that the traveling press pool was not clued in. >> Well, in the year 2000, President Clinton was traveling between India and Pakistan and they actually put him on a an unmarked plane to go between those two countries. >> This incident is putting renewed focus on security concerns surrounding the new Air Force One gifted by Qatar. Had that plane been fully secured, this deception
[04:10] might not have been necessary. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Reporting out the White House, Taylor Pappalardo, Spectrum News. >> Yeah. Boy, oh boy, there's a lot to unpack there. So, Trump eventually did move back to Air Force One. It's not clear how he moved from the C-32A to the old Air Force One after landing. But he then got back aboard Air Force One to take questions from journalists for 15 minutes, not acknowledging that that change took place. Now, before we
[04:42] we go on to another clip, I want to say that one of the things that Trump did with that kind of smart-alecky comment was he confirmed that the reporters that were on the plane were sitting ducks. He got off the plane and went on to the other plane to save himself. He didn't give a about the about the reporters who were all on the plane thinking that Trump was at the front of it and just not taking questions. Uh
[05:12] reporters in Washington are talking about this a lot today and universally they're angry. They're angry because the president didn't show any concern for their lives or their safety. Now, another another issue here is um was this really legitimate intelligence? What we've learned, and we learned this from the Turks, we're going to get to this in a minute, is that the intelligence came from the Israelis. Well, of course it came from the Israelis. But remember other credible intelligence
[05:42] that the Israelis gave us were immediately after we started bombing Iran, they said that there were Iranian terrorist cells in every major city across the United States. Okay. So, where where are the arrests? We have not seen one single arrest of a an Iranian terrorist anywhere in the United States. Did they just make it up? I mean, you might recall they're eating
[06:12] the dogs, they're eating the cats. That was made up. So, were these terrorist cells all across America never existed. So, did the Israelis tell the White House that there was a credible threat against the president's life just to make Trump feel indebted to them for saving him? I don't know. I'm speculating. This is the report from the Turks. Turkey suspects Israel fabricated Trump Air Force One assassination plot to
[06:43] derail US-Iran deal. Well, you know, one of the interesting things is that literally nobody is reporting that the CIA had developed the same information. Or that NSA had developed the same information. Or MI6 or GCHQ or the Australians or the French or the Saudis or the Emirates. Nobody else was able to develop this information. Only the Israelis.
[07:14] So, we're supposed to believe that either they got very, very lucky or they are so good that they beat the pants off of every other intelligence service in the world and they single-handedly served to protect the president of the United States. I'll let you decide. Well, another issue that we have here is the plane footage. I thought you would get a kick out of seeing something like this. JB, can you run this uh this clip?
[07:46] So, here's the president going on the new Air Force One. And he just disappears inside it just like he normally would. Now, what you see down there is a catering truck. There's an elevator on the other side of Air Force One where the catering truck can drive up to the elevator, load the food onto it, it goes up into the actual body of the plane, and everybody gets their meals for the trip and their drinks and coffee and what have you. But, in this case, the president was hiding inside the catering truck.
[08:19] And then the catering truck took him to the smaller jet in between the new Air Force One and the old Air Force One, loaded him onto the smaller jet, the media gets on the the new Air Force One, which is apparently the one that was under threat from the Iranians. And uh and then everybody flew to the UK. Well, once they get to the UK, Trump gets off the smaller jet, secretly gets
[08:49] back on Air Force One, flies to Andrews Air Force Base, and everybody lives happily ever after. And we're only learning this now. So, the bottom line is we're just going to have to take the Israelis' word for it because we're never going to know if there really was a threat against the president or not. This whole incident got me wondering about other historic escapes, and there were a couple that I knew about. In 1861, this is one of my favorite ones. This was a legitimate plot.
[09:20] In 1861, detectives uncovered The Pinkertons, by the way, Pinkerton detectives uncovered a plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln as his train was passing through Baltimore. He was on his way to Washington to take the oath of office. This was March of 1861. So, get this. In Baltimore, he received 2% of the vote. Baltimore, even though Maryland Maryland was a southern state, but it did not it did
[09:51] not secede from the Union. It did not join the Confederacy. It just wanted to stay out of it. But, Maryland Marylanders hated Abraham Lincoln. He got 2% of the vote in Baltimore. Telegraph wires were cut. And the future president slipped through Baltimore overnight wearing a soft felt hat and a shawl. Detective Kate Warne repeatedly posed as as Lincoln's sister while Lincoln hid behind in a sleeping
[10:22] car. He made it safely to Washington. He took the oath of office and then got roasted by the press for sneaking into town. Universally, the media in 1861 called Abraham Lincoln a coward because he wouldn't, you know, face his assassins like a man. Can you imagine? 200 years before that, King Charles II in 1651 famously climbed and hid inside an oak tree
[10:54] after losing the Battle of Worcester. He successfully hid there for a day. And then he went on the run for 6 weeks so as not to be caught and probably executed. Fidel Castro survived decades of assassination attempts. Some that sound like like rejected Austin Powers scenes. Seriously. Poison pills, exploding seashells, exploding cigars, a contaminated skin diving suit. Ridiculous.