2026-08-12T21:03:38.035Z / 路透社
华盛顿，8月12日（路透社）——从一开始，就有哪里不对劲。
7月在安卡拉举行的北约领导人峰会临近尾声时，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在真相社交（Truth Social）上发帖称，他不会乘坐那架送他抵达土耳其首都的新总统专机回国——这架专机是卡塔尔去年赠送给美国政府的。
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特朗普称，他已将专机提前飞往英国的米尔登霍尔空军基地，以便美军人员参观。他没有明确说明最终将如何返回华盛顿，只表示将搭乘较旧的“空军一号”飞往米尔登霍尔。
作为随特朗普出行的媒体随行团成员之一，我全程参与了这次行程。
行程变更令人费解，特朗普的解释似乎也站不住脚。记者们彼此间开始猜测，伊朗是否策划了具体的暗杀总统的阴谋。起初，我们的确切行程也成谜，尽管我们原本以为在英国停留后，仍会按原计划返回华盛顿。
如果我们最初关于安全隐患的猜测属实，那么卡塔尔提供的这架专机——众所周知它缺少某些安全配置——可能不符合安全标准。这或许可以解释白宫为何要更换专机，也意味着我们这次的飞行会比平时危险得多。
7月8日峰会最后一天，特朗普无意间引发了外界对潜在威胁的猜测。在与叙利亚总统艾哈迈德·沙拉、乌克兰领导人弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基等多国领导人会晤期间，他多次向记者提及伊朗长期以来试图暗杀他的企图。
离开土耳其前举行的新闻发布会上，特朗普基本回避了关于更换专机的问题，但外界对事件反常之处的怀疑反而加深了。
当我们登上原本以为是搭载总统的专机时，白宫工作人员指示记者们拉下遮光板。当我们追问原因时，得到的答复是特勤局的要求。
我曾多次搭乘总统专机，深知这种要求不合常规。难道这是为了掩盖某种机密国防技术？
直到数周后我们才得知，这个指令其实是为了掩护一项秘密行动：特朗普因安全隐患从专机通过餐车撤离，转而登上另一架政府专机。
在“空军一号”上，想要得到答案往往异常困难。出于安全考虑，记者无法使用WiFi。而与白宫工作人员的沟通，通常只能通过被称为“协调员”的后勤人员，这类人员往往无法接触或无权披露敏感信息。
从安卡拉飞往米尔登霍尔的飞行过程平淡无奇，但我们却难以放松。我们当时错误地认为总统随时可能出现，而我们此次飞行的具体情况依然成谜。
由于现在看来显而易见的原因，特朗普并没有像往常一样在“空军一号”上与记者们“闲聊”。我当时并未在意他的缺席，因为他经常不在专机上与记者交谈。
但当我们在深夜降落在英国时，这次行程又出现了不同寻常的转折。
当我们走下飞机时，看到特朗普从飞机的另一区域走下来，事后回想起来，这是整个精心策划的骗局的一部分。
随后白宫工作人员让我们步行跟随特朗普，他走向那架卡塔尔提供的“空军一号”，那架飞机停在我们刚刚走下的飞机前方数百码处。特勤局特工护卫在总统两侧，我们右侧的一辆黑色政府SUV缓缓驶来。
这一操作——我在白宫报道期间从未见过类似场景——立刻让我觉得极具表演性，如同电影桥段，尤其是当时我完全不清楚其目的。
登上新专机并起飞后，一名白宫助手向记者们分发了特朗普在真相社交上发布的帖子打印件，其中配有一张美军人员及其家属聚集在卡塔尔提供的专机前的深色照片。
特朗普在帖子中称，整个基地都要求参观这架专机，并且在米尔登霍尔停留“几乎没有偏离”安卡拉飞往华盛顿的标准航线。
片刻之后，总统来到媒体舱，我们纷纷向他提问，询问他不乘坐卡塔尔提供的专机前往英国的真正原因。
又过了一个月，我们才得知，特朗普根本没有和我们一起前往米尔登霍尔，当时另有第三架专机参与其中。
飞行途中，特朗普否认安全顾虑是更换专机的原因。但当我问他为何要求我们拉下遮光板时，他承认自己一直面临来自伊朗的持续威胁。
“但如果我走，你们也走，对吧？”特朗普对我们说，“或许某天你们想换个职业。”
本报记者 格拉姆·斯莱特里 编辑 科琳·詹金斯、尼克·齐明斯基
格拉姆·斯莱特里是华盛顿特区白宫记者，专注于国家安全、情报和外交事务报道。他的报道聚焦美国关键外交政策决策的辩论、形成与执行过程。他曾担任全国政治记者，报道2024年总统竞选。2015年至2022年，他先后在里约热内卢、圣保罗和智利圣地亚哥任职，在拉美地区有大量报道经历。
‘If I go, you go, right?’: Traveling on the presidential plane—without Trump
2026-08-12T21:03:38.035Z / Reuters
WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – From the beginning, something didn’t add up.
During the closing hours of the NATO Leaders’ Summit in Ankara in July, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he would not be flying home aboard the new presidential plane that had brought him to the Turkish capital after Qatar gifted it to the administration last year.
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Instead, Trump said, he had sent the aircraft ahead to Mildenhall Air Force Base in England so servicemembers could tour it. He wrote, without making clear how he would ultimately get home to Washington, that he would fly to Mildenhall aboard an older Air Force One.
As part of the press pool traveling with Trump, I was along for the ride.
The itinerary change was confusing, and Trump’s explanation seemed implausible. Reporters’ questions to one another turned to whether Iran had hatched a concrete plot to assassinate the president. At first, our precise itinerary also remained a mystery, though we assumed we were still heading back to Washington as initially planned after the stop in the United Kingdom.
If our initial hunch regarding a security concern proved accurate, the Qatari-provided plane – which is known to lack certain safety features – might not be up to snuff. That could explain why the White House would want to switch out the planes, and it would mean that we were in for a much more dangerous flight than usual.
Trump had inadvertently stoked speculation about potential threats during the final day of the summit on July 8. As he met with various world leaders, from Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy, he repeatedly brought up Iran’s longstanding attempts to kill him in comments to reporters.
After a press conference shortly before leaving Turkey in which Trump largely deflected questions about the plane swap, the sense that something was out of the ordinary only grew.
As we boarded what we believed was the aircraft carrying the president, White House staff directed journalists to close our window shades. When we pressed for an explanation, we were told it was a request from the Secret Service.
Having traveled on the presidential plane before, I knew this demand was atypical. Was it, perhaps, an attempt to obscure some sort of classified defense technology?
Only weeks later would we find out that the instruction was designed to help hide a covert operation in which Trump left the aircraft via a catering truck and boarded a different government jet due to a security concern.
On Air Force One itself, answers can be surprisingly hard to come by. For security reasons, reporters have no access to WiFi. Access to White House staff, meanwhile, is usually limited to a logistical staffer known as a “wrangler,” who often lacks access to or authority to distribute sensitive information.
The flight from Ankara to Mildenhall was uneventful, though it was hard to relax. We believed, falsely, that the president could appear at any moment and the circumstances surrounding our flight remained a mystery.
While Trump did not “gaggle” with journalists for reasons that are now obvious, I thought little of his absence as he often forgoes speaking to journalists on Air Force One.
But when we landed in England in the late evening, the trip took another unusual turn.
As we walked off the plane, we saw Trump descend from another section of the aircraft, an elaborate part of the ruse in hindsight.
White House staff then asked us to follow Trump on foot as he walked to the Qatari-provided Air Force One, which was parked several hundred yards in front of the aircraft we had just exited. Secret Service agents flanked the president, and a black government SUV to our right rolled slowly forward.
The maneuver – which resembled nothing I had seen before on the White House beat – immediately struck me as notably performative and cinematic, particularly as I was unsure of its purpose.
After loading up on the new plane and taking off, a White House aide provided journalists with a printout of a Truth Social post from Trump that included a dark picture of servicemembers and their families gathered in front of the Qatari-provided plane.
In the post, Trump said the “entire” base had requested to see the plane, and that stopping in Mildenhall required “virtually no deviation” from the standard Ankara-to-Washington flight path.
Moments later, the president visited the press cabin, where we peppered him with questions about the real reasons for why he didn’t take the Qatari-provided plane to England.
It would not become clear for another month that Trump had not traveled with us to Mildenhall at all and that there was a third plane involved.
During the flight, he denied that security concerns were a factor. But when I asked him why we had to close our window shades, he acknowledged the persistent threats he faced from Iran.
“But if I go, you go. Right?” Trump told us. “Perhaps someday you want to change professions.”
Reporting by Gram Slattery, editing by Colleen Jenkins and Nick Zieminski
Gram Slattery is a White House correspondent in Washington, focusing on national security, intelligence and foreign affairs. His work covers how key U.S. foreign policy decisions are debated, shaped and executed. He was previously a national political correspondent, covering the 2024 presidential campaign. From 2015 to 2022, he held postings in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Santiago, Chile, and he has reported extensively throughout Latin America.
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