As it emerged belatedly that U.S. President Donald Trump used Air Force One carrying the traveling press as a "decoy" while secretly switching planes to avoid an Iranian assassination threat, the White House press corps demanded safety measures.
On the 12th (local time), CNN reported that Jackie Heinrich, president of the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) and a Fox News anchor, met with Trump's aides the previous day and conveyed the press corps' concerns about the operation at the time.
The press corps said the operation not only endangered reporters' safety but also undermined the role of the pool that logs the president's movements and the accuracy and credibility of coverage. They called for the White House and the press corps to jointly establish response procedures in case of similar security situations in the future.
After the meeting, Heinrich told members in a note that they had a "candid and productive meeting" with the White House. She said, "We strongly conveyed the importance of independent press coverage of the president and maintaining an accurate historical record of the president's movements."
She added that they conveyed to the White House concerns that if the credibility of pool coverage is damaged, it would not stop with this incident but could affect the credibility of presidential coverage overall going forward.
The controversy unfolded on the 8th, when Trump was departing Türkiye after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit.
With reporters watching, Trump boarded an older Air Force One but then slipped out through the opposite door. Using a catering truck, he switched to a small Air Force plane on standby nearby and flew to Britain.
But the traveling reporters and some administration officials, unaware of this, flew on the older Air Force One. They were even instructed to lower the window shades, so they did not realize Trump had moved to another aircraft.
As a result, the Air Force One carrying the press corps effectively served as a "decoy" in response to Iran's assassination threat.
Initially, it was believed Trump flew from Türkiye to Britain on the older Air Force One to avoid the Iranian assassination threat, then switched to the newer Air Force One there. But on the 10th, the Washington Post (WP) reported the full scope of the covert operation, revealing the actual movements about a month later.
CNN said reporters who were on Air Force One at the time later learned of this and said they were "shocked." Because of the covert operation, the White House pool's contemporaneous record of the president's movements also differed from reality.
Trump told reporters the previous day that secretly switching planes at the time was done at the request of the Secret Service.