U.S. fighter jets escorted the decoy Air Force One that carried reporters and senior staff to the United Kingdom after President Donald Trump moved to another aircraft, a senior Trump administration official said Wednesday. The Air Force One decoy flew with the press corps and top officials aboard, adding another layer to the unusual security steps surrounding the president’s trip and the plane swap that kept Trump off the aircraft most people would have expected him to use.
The official said the press corps rode on the decoy plane under fighter jet protection, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The group knew Trump was not on board. The move was described as a security measure tied to concerns about a threat environment that had drawn attention in recent days, and it was aimed at keeping the aircraft covered as it traveled overseas. Those aboard were told to keep the window shades closed during the flight, a step that prevented them from seeing the escort outside.
Reporters traveling with the president said there was little sign at the airport that anything unusual was happening before departure. The press vans were kept well back in the motorcade, and photographers did not see Trump board an aircraft from the position they normally use under the wing. Staff and reporters entered the plane as they usually would, and snack mix bearing the presidential seal was waiting for them on board. After takeoff, however, they were instructed to keep the shades down. A Secret Service agent later repeated the order in the press cabin, and when one photographer briefly lifted a shade, the photographer was told to close it again.
A White House staffer told reporters that the closed shades had been requested by the Secret Service. Trump later said the decision to switch planes came from his security detail and the military. Speaking to reporters after traveling to Geneva, Ohio, for the Freedom 250 Patriot Games, he said he simply followed what the Secret Service and military wanted him to do. He added that they asked him to go on a different flight and said it would be equally safe.
