Calling himself ‘the most consequential president,’ Trump says he has ‘a lot of threats’
Washington Examiner · RC · trust 35/100
TRUMP: ‘I WAS AT GREATER RISK’: In an exchange with reporters as he arrived in Ohio for his high school Patriot Games competition, President Donald Trump was asked a key question about his secret airplane swap in Turkey last month to foil a potential Iranian threat on his life.
“Why was it too dangerous for you to fly on Air Force One, but not for the press?” CBS correspondent Nancy Cordes asked.
“I don’t know. I think, actually, the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. I think it was a greater risk. Because that would be the plane I think that we, that they would be more likely to go for,” Trump replied. “And it was really as per the military . And I just have to do what they say. Uh, they go for safety and I have to do what they say.”
“It’s up to the Secret Service. I just follow what they’d like to do. So, I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane,” Trump said. “Equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say.”
Trump was still sticking to his cover story that the new luxury Air Force One was sent ahead to RAF Mildenhall because the troops there wanted to get eyes on it. “This one went over to England because the soldiers wanted to see it,” Trump claimed. “They showed it to the soldiers, and we did a switch over there.
Trump insisted he shrugs off the threats against his life, and was unconcerned about the possibility a missile could take down his plane. “I don’t worry about anything, to be honest, whatever it is. You know my attitude? Whatever,” he said. “I have a lot of threats. I have a lot of threats that you don’t know about. Any consequential president has a lot of threats. Non-consequential presidents don’t get threats. And I think that I’m maybe the most consequential president.”
CUE THE DEMOCRATS: “The Senate should be immediately briefed on the Iranian threats against the President, the extraordinary measures taken to get him out of Turkey, any risks posed to U.S. personnel, and any threat to the homeland,” Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) posted on X . “It is unacceptable that Congress was kept in the dark and instead learned about this serious threat through press reports.”
“Trump has put America’s sons and daughters in harm’s way by getting into an unnecessary and reckless war, and this administration has repeatedly refused to provide Congress and the public with the transparency they deserve,” Schumer said “This is exactly why Congress must reassert its constitutional authority and bring this conflict to an end.”
“The Secret Service should be credited with an evasive maneuver or, as they call it, a deceptive operation, to keep the President safe,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said on CNN. “But remember that there continued to be reporters and staff and military on the legacy Air Force One, which then flew without the President, and I’d like to know what was done to keep them safe.”
“I’m not aware of all the security details. I’m not going to second guess decisions made by the commander on that scene. But the whole episode just underscores how much he’s lost control over the whole scenario in the Middle East,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said on CNN. “I mean this guy started an illegal war declaring regime change, and now he is the leader who’s scrambling. We’ve got the Strait of Hormuz turned into an Iranian river. We have prices skyrocketing here. We have the Mecca pact now, which is introducing nuclear weapons, not getting rid of nuclear enrichment in the Middle East. So, the president has failed. And this embarrassing episode just highlights it.”
WHY DOES ANYONE NEED TO KNOW? Did the White House violate a tacit agreement with the traveling press pool not to lie to them? Should reporters have been informed of the threat on an off-the-record basis, with no reporting until after the president was safely clear of the threat?
“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,” Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich — who is also president of the White House Correspondents Association — said in a memo to members. “This afternoon, I had a candid and productive meeting with senior administration officials to convey those concerns directly.”
“More broadly, I stressed that undermining confidence in the reliability of pool reports carries risks beyond any single incident,” Heinrich wrote. “In an already conspiratorial information environment, uncertainty about whether independent reporting can be trusted can be exploited by bad actors seeking to sow confusion and undermine confidence in journalism.”
Ari Fleischer , former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush , argues that reporters know full well that traveling with the president carries inherent risks. “If there’s an attack on the motorcade, the secure package splits off and everyone else is on their own, from some WH staff to some military officials, all reporters and members of Congress,” Fleischer posted on X . “The safety of potus always comes first. We don’t complain. That’s the way it is.”
Good Wednesday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense , written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre ( @jamiejmcintyre ) and edited by Keely Bastow . Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com .
HAPPENING TODAY: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in Panama , where he is meeting with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino and senior officials from Colombia. He’s scheduled to deliver remarks at the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition Forum later today.
Hegseth will also meet with U.S. troops at Panama’s Jungle Operations Training Course and observe PANAMAX military exercises.
Hegseth’s…
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