WHCA Seeks Changes After Trump Left Press on Decoy Plane Over Iranian Threat
Updated
Updated · New York Magazine · Aug 17
WHCA Seeks Changes After Trump Left Press on Decoy Plane Over Iranian Threat
3 articles · Updated · New York Magazine · Aug 17
Summary
Jacqui Heinrich said the White House Correspondents' Association is pressing the White House for solutions after reporters learned Trump secretly left an Air Force One flight from Ankara on July 8.
The swap followed an Iranian threat: Trump boarded, then exited through an airport catering truck to a smaller plane, while reporters and some officials stayed on what became a decoy flight.
Heinrich said the main concerns are journalist safety and the pool's ability to provide continuous, accurate coverage, arguing reporters were left transmitting false information and could not quickly correct the record.
She said the WHCA's preferred fix is keeping the press with the president whenever possible, or at minimum clarifying what happened immediately after a threat passes; in this case, neither occurred.
Officials later told the Washington Post that F-16s escorted both planes and the CIA had "low confidence" in the Iranian threat, underscoring reporters' frustration at being kept uninformed.