Escape From Ankara

Susan Estrich on Aug 13, 2026

Last month, President Donald Trump left the summit in Ankara, Turkey in a catering truck. He walked onto the old Air Force One in view of all the cameras, then snuck onto a catering truck to be whisked to a military jet, which flew him to England, where he snuck back onto Air Force One. And no one was the wiser until this week, when the Washington Post and then The New York Times broke the story.

All of this was done to protect the president. The threat to him, and to Air Force One, was sufficiently serious to pull off this extraordinary scheme. It sounds like a Hollywood pitch. But not. The New York Times actually spoke to the screenwriter of the film "Air Force One," in which President Harrison Ford's plane is hijacked. Andrew Marlowe had this to say: "Now real life isn't a movie, but given the circumstances, I'm not sure I could ever script a moment like that for a heroic main character. If the threat were that great, it's hard to imagine the audience rooting for any character who would trade his own safety by treating the remaining civilians onboard as potential sacrificial lambs, especially without their informed consent."

That's what's been bothering me. If the threat to Air Force One was too great for the president, why wasn't it too great for the senior officials and members of the news media who boarded the plane with him? Trump used them as decoys to protect himself. Yes, the Secret Service came up with the scheme, but the buck doesn't stop there. It stops with the man who approved it and got on the catering truck, leaving the rest behind.

And then, when the danger had passed, they didn't tell. When the need for secrecy has passed, why keep it a secret? Isn't it relevant in evaluating this war that Trump has managed to get us into? Isn't it relevant in evaluating Trump's character? And put aside that he was on the old Air Force One, or at least he was supposed to be, not the new Qatari gift, because it will take time and money to bring it up to the old plane's defensive capabilities. (But I'm sure it has more gold inside).

It was in the Kennedy campaign in 1980 that I first came across the concept of the "death watch" -- which meant that the press "pool," select representatives of the press corps, had to be with the senator even at closed events -- just in case. That's how the rotating pool works. Still does. The public has a right to know. At least it's supposed to. As I understand it, no reporters traveled with the president.

When the news did break, the White House initially did not respond to the media's requests for comment. On Tuesday night, Trump told reporters that he followed the advice of the Secret Service and rejected the notion that others were put in more danger than him.

"I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for."

That makes no sense. The whole plan was premised on Air Force One being the target. Didn't Trump understand whose lives he was risking? How could he not? That's the problem with the movie version of this. You can't have Harrison Ford playing a coward. What about Donald Trump?

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.