When President Bill Clinton deplaned in Islamabad, Pakistan, the sleight of hand became clear.
A decoy jet with all of the markings of Air Force One touched down in view of the news media, and a Secret Service agent resembling the president emerged. Then, an unmarked plane landed, and the real president disembarked.
It was March 2000, and Susan Page, a White House reporter covering the trip for USA Today, was one of a small group of people who knew about the ruse.
Before the India-to-Pakistan flight, White House officials called Page, then the White House Correspondents’ Association president, and summoned her for an off-the-record conversation. There, White House press and security officials explained the operation, informing her of the president’s location and safety measures in place for journalists on the trip, Page said in messages with The Washington Post.
“They told me about the extraordinary security procedures being taken because of the dangers in flying there, including use of the decoy plane,” she said. “Of course, the dangers threatened the journalists covering the trip as well as President Clinton.”
Page’s briefing, which has not been previously reported, meant at least one journalist in the traveling press corps knew the president would not be aboard Air Force One.
More than 25 years later, the White House faced a similar security dilemma — but handled the press very differently.
Earlier Monday evening, The Post reported on an extraordinary maneuver in which security personnel in Turkey secretly moved President Donald Trump from a plane marked as Air Force One to a smaller, unmarked Air Force plane, using an airport catering truck. The operation, which took place last month, was prompted by a credible Iranian threat to Trump, The Post reported.
As the swap took place, reporters aboard the decoy plane, who were instructed to lower their window shades, were unaware of the president’s maneuver, according to The Post’s reporting.
The incident could further degrade the already-fraught rapport between the Trump White House and the press corps, a relationship marked by name-calling, threats, legal restrictionsand lawsuits from Trump.
Page, now USA Today’s Washington bureau chief, declined to comment on the newly revealed incident but broke a decades-old agreement with the Clinton White House to describe her experience.
“I haven’t spoken about this episode before, because of the off-the-record ground rules of that discussion,” Page said in a text message. “But since more than a quarter-century has passed — and since the ruse became evident as soon as President Clinton disembarked in Pakistan — I think it’s OK for me to relay it now.”
Jacqui Heinrich, current president of the WHCA, declined to comment.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the operation’s impact on the journalists aboard the decoy plane.
“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,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung previously told The Post.
The White House press pool consists of a rotating group of journalists who send reports, photos and footage of the president’s activities for the entire press corps. This formal system has existed since 1937, though the White House first brought in a pooler in 1881 after President James Garfield was shot. Associated Press reporter Franklin Trusdell sat outside of the president’s room, monitoring his breathing and sharing updates with his colleagues.
The system is designed to ensure that someone from the press is present to observe the president’s movements and activities, giving the public an independent accounting.
Because the press was seemingly in the dark about the operation, Garrett Graff, a journalist and historian, said that The Post’s reporting describes an event that is probably unprecedented in modern presidential history.
“That the White House would lie to the press corps in its entirety about where the president is,” he said. “That’s a new Rubicon that’s being crossed.”
The breach was not merely one of journalistic access, according to Graff. The details of the threat that prompted Trump’s operation are unknown, so it’s impossible to calculate the risks to the press pool. However, the reporters aboard the plane were probably exposed to the very threat that had prompted the extraordinary security measures, Graff said.
“Knowing that this was a series of actions that the White House and the military took precisely because of a threat that they were deeply worried about, it makes it all the more egregious that the press was kept out of the loop,” he added.
Former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr said that the press fully understands and respects the security requirements of covering the president.
But, she said, “there will be a level of distrust now that we have not seen before … their own lives were potentially at risk without them even knowing it, without them having the option of making a different choice of how to get home.”
Politico reporter Megan Messerly was the print pooler on the day of Trump’s trip. “We are wheels up from Ankara as of 8:43 p.m.,” she reported. “We have been advised to keep our window shades in the press cabin closed. See you on the other side.”
After landing, she wrote that the flight was “uneventful” with “no visitors to the press cabin.”
Hours later, a reporter peppered Trump with questions about whether there was a security threat to Air Force One that warranted the shades closed, according to Messerly’s pool report.
“Well, I have a threat all the time. I’m number one on their list, before you,” Trump responded. “But if I go, you go. Right? Perhaps someday you want to change professions.” Messerly did not respond to a request for comment.
The disclosure quickly prompted a scramble among White House reporters for more information.
“We (and no doubt every other newsroom in Washington) are asking the White House and sources for more info,” NBC chief White House correspondent Garrett Haake wrote on X.
ABC’s Michelle Stoddart, who was the TV pool producer aboard the flight, sent WHCA members additional details on the trip, following The Post’s reporting.
“Upon arrival to the airport, the events did not seem particularly out of the ordinary to the travel pool,” she wrote. “Our photographer noted that the stairs were quickly pulled away as the press loaded.”
She said that a photographer seated behind her opened a shade on board and was quickly instructed to close it again by a White House staffer who said it was a “request from Secret Service.”
One White House reporter, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly, said that they were outraged to learn about an operation that might have put the press corps in danger.
“When you sign up to work at the White House, even as a civilian, part of your job is to defend the president,” the reporter said. “That’s not my job. I cover the president. Reporters take risks as part of the job, but not on behalf of the president.”
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