Trump replaced Secret Service with 'political operatives': biographer

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump is assisted by the Secret Service after gunfire rang out during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

President Donald Trump has politicized the Secret Service, and the decision to endanger journalists as part of a newly reported Air Force One ruse was made out of “political” considerations. This is according to bestselling Trump biographer Seth Abramson, who took to social media on Tuesday to urge the press to recognize the true nature of the president’s use of his security agency.

“Here’s where I tell you — as a Trump biographer — something media isn’t. Something I’ve published reports on,” posted Abramson. “Trump long ago replaced the leadership of his Secret Service detail with political operatives. So putting the journalists he hates in danger was partly a political call.”

This is in reference to new bombshell reporting that before returning from his recent visit to Turkey, an “Iranian assassination threat” prompted Trump to switch planes secretly via a catering container, flying back to the U.S. on a military plane while the press corps was left to their fates on Air Force One. These revelations have many questioning whether the president placed the lives of journalists at risk in the face of credible danger.

“Stop calling it a decoy plane. It was a bait plane,” Abramson pleaded with the media, sharing an article from the Washington Post that detailed how Trump’s secret flight differed from a similar subterfuge used by former President Bill Clinton. In Clinton’s case, however, the danger had only been theoretical rather than based on an actual threat, and the press was made aware of the situation. “When a threat is only hypothetical, it’s a decoy plane. This happened once before — with press knowledge. When a threat is known to exist, leaving the press to face it uses them as bait. Tell the truth.”

Abramson went on to assert that on January 6, 2021, “Trump’s politicization — in the most literal sense — of his security team led to the Secret Service indirectly aiding and abetting the attack on the Capitol. What looked like security decisions were political. Same thing here.”

According to the Washington Post, the only sign to reporters on Air Force One that something was amiss was the unusual demand that they keep their window shades closed. As the Post reports, “Asked why reporters had been instructed to lower the window shades on the plane in Turkey, Trump said that it was ‘because you’re probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleaze bags that we have to deal with.’ Trump said that he has a ‘threat all the time’ against his life, and that he is ‘number one’ on Iran’s ‘list.’ ‘But if I go, you go. Right?’ Trump suggested to reporters. ‘Perhaps someday you want to change professions.’”

Whether called “bait” or “decoys,” many reporters have taken issue with the matter. Veteran reporter Jake Tapper, for example, wrote that he “flew to Afghan[istan with] different president on AF1. An insurgent missile struck Bagram runway before landing. Weather was bad so planned Marine 1 trip to Kabul scrubbed. We were [with the] president the whole time. Our safety wasn’t treated any differently from his. We were never decoys.”

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