The press traveling with President Donald Trump from Turkey to Britain last month were left in the dark about the extraordinary operation that secretly removed the president from Air Force One and whisked him to another plane due to a perceived threat from Iran, an episode first reported by The Washington Post.
Four journalists on board, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because their employers did not authorize them to speak, said in interviews with the The Post that they noticed irregularities about the flight — many of which made sense only in retrospect.
Now, the journalists say they feel disappointed that the White House wasn’t forthright about the operation and didn’t brief them during the flight or once it concluded, with some reporters saying they feel deceived by the government.
Although each journalist acknowledged that any member of the press traveling with the president accepts some risk, they also thought they deserved more information about the potential perils of this particular flight.
“We never were provided any opportunity to consent to being used like this,” one journalist said. “We aren’t Air Force or Secret Service — we didn’t sign up for this job to put ourselves on the line to protect the president.”
It’s unclear whether the journalists and government staff aboard Air Force One faced any direct threat. The Post has reported that the CIA had “low confidence” in a threat from Iran. The Boeing 747 that carried the press and administration officials possesses several security measures including defensive flares to counter missiles and other threats.
Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president’s secretive departure from Ankara, said that F-16s were deployed as armed escorts as the two planes made the journey to Britain. One of those officials said that some of those fighter jets were just off the wingtips of the plane carrying Trump for at least a portion of the flights.
Still, by not disclosing the president’s sleight-of-hand maneuver, many of the journalists say the administration broke a cardinal pact to a press corps charged with accounting for the movements of the country’s leader. The result is that some journalists aboard retrospectively felt endangered riding a plane not deemed safe enough for its primary passenger — leaving the broader press corps unsure whether they can trust the Trump White House to consider their personal safety as it works to protect the president.
“Transparency was thrown entirely out the window, replaced by outright deception,” Richard W. Stevenson, the Washington bureau chief for the New York Times, said in a Times story. “That’s a terrible precedent. And the fact that it left journalists and staff members unknowingly exposed to a potential threat made it much, much worse.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the impact of the operation on the press. Most of the news organizations with journalists on board declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
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. It has been in place consistently since 1937 and was first used after President James Garfield was shot in 1881.
“There’s a reason that press pool is often called the body watch,” said journalist and historian Garrett Graff. “You’re there in case something goes wrong.”
The second Trump administration has placed the pool under unusual strain, as it has upended many of the protocols of its operations. The White House last year seized control of the makeup of the pool from the White House Correspondents’ Association, which had for decades chosen the rotating cast of news organizations that chronicle the president.
The Ankara flight contained about a dozen journalists who accompanied Trump on the trip, hailing from ABC News, Agence-France Presse (AFP), the Associated Press, Bloomberg, Getty, the New York Times, NPR, Politico, Reuters and One America News.
The four journalists who spoke to The Post said they noticed anomalies before and during the flight.
Three of the journalists said they noticed the catering truck on the tarmac, which was unusually close to the plane, but did not divine its purpose.
“You’re not really looking for the president to be slipping into a catering van,” one of the journalists said. “Not even in one’s wildest dreams.”
Once the plane was airborne, flight staff asked everyone to lower their window shades — and keep them lowered — but declined to give an explanation about the purpose of the request when asked. Some of the journalists said the request was unusual for a diplomatic visit and said they had only experienced requests like this when flying in and out of war zones.
One journalist noticed that Trump climbed the plane’s stairs briskly, reaching the top before the press motorcade parked on the tarmac. Another was surprised that Trump chose not to gaggle — or brief — the press on the first part of a two-leg flight. After they switched to the new, Qatari-gifted Air Force One plane in Britain much later at night, Trump then opted to speak with reporters.
AFP, a news service based in France that had a photographer on board, told The Post it was concerned by what has emerged about the operation.
“It is always a matter of concern when a media outlet discovers it has been misled and the record not corrected right away,” said Marc Lavine, AFP’s regional director for North America. “This is especially true when the matter potentially concerns the safety of its reporters, which is paramount to AFP.”
Lavine said the news outlet was in talks with the White House Correspondents’ Association and is working with the group to address the issue.
Charles Herring, the president of One America News, a conservative TV network with a reporter on board, said it was understandable that the White House declined to tell the press about a sensitive operation.
“Journalists understand that there are risks traveling with the President of the United States,” he said, likening their choice to travel with Trump to the decision to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — which was interrupted by a gunman in April — and the makeup dinner in July.
“This doesn’t appear to be a White House decision but was rather in the hands of our most capable security experts,” Herring said.
A slew of press advocacy groups condemned the White House for its lack of transparency about the status of the president, raising concerns about the safety of the journalists on board the flight.
“If reporters were unknowingly left aboard an aircraft as part of a security deception involving a credible threat, that is deeply troubling,” said Mark Schoeff Jr., president of the National Press Club. It “raises serious questions about whether their safety was adequately considered.”
José Zamora of the Committee to Protect Journalists said the Trump administration has a responsibility to ensure that journalists who cover the president aren’t in danger. “Transparency should be the norm for any administration, particularly when safety is at stake,” he said.
The White House Correspondents’ Association president, Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox News reporter, told members earlier this week that she would meet with White House officials to relay the concerns of members. Her email, obtained by The Post, mentioned safety concerns for journalists but focused more so on issues of transparency and honesty.
“If circumstances ever result in reporters unwittingly transmitting inaccurate or misleading information, there needs to be a way for the press to correct the record once the security concern has passed,” she wrote. “Otherwise, reporters could be left with reasonable questions about whether information they independently observe and report can be relied upon.”
Heinrich declined to comment.
In 2000, during a similar flight maneuver made by President Bill Clinton on the way out of Pakistan, White House officials briefed USA Today’s Susan Page, then the WHCA president, in an off-the-record capacity about what would transpire. Page broke a 26-year silence earlier this week in an interview with The Post.
Journalists on board Air Force One in July said they are not unfamiliar with accompanying the president to risky environments, including war zones. An ordinary trip with the president could result in violence. At a 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, for example, some members of the press were standing feet away from Trump, then the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, when a gunman opened fire.
Some of the journalists were surprised by the secrecy; others say they are jaded by an administration they argue has been consistently dishonest with them. They said they would have respected requests made in the name of security if they had been clued in.
“I think you can ask people to take those risks,” one journalist said. “But you should be honest about it.”
Tara Copp contributed to this report.
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