Hold onto your seats, folks, because the press corps just got absolutely bodied by a guy standing on a tarmac.
President Donald Trump stepped onto the pavement at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday night and dismantled the entire media freakout over his secret Turkey plane swap in roughly a minute and a half. The whole saga, as USA Journal covered, revolves around Trump being quietly shuffled onto a smaller military aircraft when departing Turkey on July 8 because intelligence agencies had picked up a credible Iranian assassination plot targeting him.
So what did the press do with this information? They spent all of Tuesday clutching their pearls and wailing that journalists aboard Air Force One had been "deceived" because nobody told them the commander in chief had secretly bounced under cover of a catering truck. The horror!
Then Trump opened his mouth and the whole thing crumbled like a stale cookie.
His explanation was brutally straightforward. The Secret Service told him they wanted him on a different aircraft. He said okay. That was literally the entire decision. "I go by Secret Service. I go by the military. They said, 'Sir, we'd like you to do this.' I said, 'Whatever you want.'" Not exactly the scandal of the century.
But here is where it gets absolutely delicious. A reporter lobbed what they clearly thought was a gotcha question, asking why it was too risky for Trump to fly on Air Force One but perfectly fine for the press pool. Trump flipped the entire premise on its head. He told reporters that the smaller plane he traveled on was actually at GREATER risk because adversaries would more likely target that aircraft.
Let that sink in for a second. The journalists screaming about being put in danger were actually cruising on the most fortified military aircraft on planet Earth, loaded with classified security systems and communications gear specifically engineered to keep a president alive during catastrophic scenarios. Meanwhile, Trump voluntarily took the riskier ride.
The media narrative required everyone to believe that reporters got tossed into harm's way. The reality is the complete opposite. Iran would have had far less motivation to target Air Force One precisely because they believed the president was aboard. The press pool was essentially wrapped in a flying fortress.
Let us also state something that apparently needs repeating. Deranged individuals have tried to harm Donald Trump before. Operational security around him is not optional, and it certainly is not something that requires advance approval from the White House press corps. If you want proximity to this president, the risk profile comes bundled with that privilege.
When asked if the situation concerned him, Trump delivered the most Trump response imaginable. "I don't worry about anything, to be honest. Whatever it is. You know my attitude? Whatever!"
So to recap this absolute circus, a legitimate Iranian threat emerged. The Secret Service made a tactical call. The president followed their instructions without pushback. Reporters flew safely on the most protected airplane in existence. And somehow the media manufactured outrage because nobody handed them a classified briefing beforehand.
The catering truck gambit worked. The narrative is toast. Another Tuesday in American politics, ladies and gentlemen.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
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