I’ve been out of town for the past couple of days enjoying a little camping getaway. It was a nice break. But when I heard that the president hid in a food catering truck to avoid the risk of an Iranian attack on Air Force One, I found myself wishing I were back at my drawing table.
Now, I don’t necessarily object to using a ruse to protect the president from an assassination attempt. If that’s what security experts determine is necessary, so be it. But leaving White House staff, the flight crew, and the traveling press unknowingly serving as decoys is another matter entirely. They were taking on additional risk without being told they were doing so.
What makes the episode even worse is the effort to conceal it afterward. According to The New York Times, the administration reportedly used the same deception in reverse once Trump reached the U.K., secretly transferring him back onto Air Force One so he could disembark from the presidential aircraft for the cameras. Then, when questions arose, officials denied what had happened.
The operation may have been clever. The gratuitous cover-up was not. At some point, even successful deception in the name of security yields to deception for the sake of image management, and that seems to be the default setting for this administration. What a bunch of clowns.
