Follow the Qatar Plane

Funny how the whole story is about the catering truck. The president of the United States gets smuggled off a NATO summit tarmac in a food service vehicle because Iran apparently wants to kill him, and every outlet in the country wants to talk about the truck. The truck is the show. The truck is the magician’s handkerchief. Ask yourself what the other hand is doing.

Here is what the other hand is doing. Donald Trump flew into Turkey on a Boeing 747-8 that the government of Qatar gave the United States as a gift. A $400 million gift. From a foreign government. And the Secret Service, according to the New York Times, had to urge him to switch planes on the way home because they were not sure the Qatari jet could keep him alive. The older Air Force One planes have laser systems designed to blind incoming missiles. The Qatari plane? Nobody will say what it has. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, says it is “perfectly safe” but will receive “additional upgrades and enhancements in the fall.” So it is perfectly safe and also needs more work. Both things. At the same time.

Singlespeedfahrer (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons

This is the part that should make every American stop and think. Your president is flying around on a plane donated by a foreign monarchy, and his own security people are not confident it can stop a missile. The catering truck is the headline. The foreign plane with unknown defenses is the story.

Now look at how the information came out. The Washington Post and the New York Times both got details from officials and “other material.” Someone inside the government handed over the specifics of a live security operation involving an active Iranian threat against the president. The Justice Department says it is investigating illegal leaks. Good. But ask yourself who benefits. The leak does not help Trump. It does not help the Secret Service. It does not help anyone trying to protect the president. It helps people who want to embarrass him, or people who want to bury the Qatar plane question under a pile of catering truck drama.

Trump himself told reporters on the flight: “You’re probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleazebags we have to deal with.” He said he is “number one” on Iran’s list. Then he added: “But if I go, you go, right? Perhaps someday you want to change professions.” That is either a joke or it is not. With this president, you never know, and that is part of the problem. The man is under a credible missile threat and he is doing stand-up about it.

Premkudva (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boarded the smaller C-32A separately to make the flight look routine. Reporters on the decoy plane were told to close their window shades. Some White House staff did not know Trump was gone. The whole operation was a magic trick on a tarmac in Ankara, and the audience was the press corps, and they fell for it.

But here is the question nobody in the press is asking. Why was the president of the United States on a foreign-donated plane in a war zone in the first place? The old Air Force One has countermeasures. The new one is a gift that apparently does not. The Secret Service said switch. Trump said he was taking the old plane “for old time’s sake.” Old time’s sake. That is what they want you to believe. A man who does nothing for old time’s sake suddenly gets nostalgic about a jet while Iran has a missile pointed at the new one.

Shealeah Craighead (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

The establishment wants you laughing about the catering truck. I want you looking at the plane Qatar gave us and asking why nobody in the swamp thought a foreign-donated aircraft flying a president through a combat zone was a problem until the Secret Service had to step in.

Follow the plane. The truck is noise.