2026-08-13T10:41:43-04:00 / 福克斯新闻网
退休空军中校罗伯特·帕特森怀疑，特朗普调换空军一号的相关报道是某位“高层人士”泄露的
作者：埃里克·麦克 福克斯新闻网
发布于2026年8月13日 美国东部夏令时上午10:41
前克林顿时期核提包管理员怀疑：空军一号泄密者“位高权重”
美国退役空军中校“巴兹”·帕特森表示，假行动“存在自有其道理”，而暴露其运作方式可能会危及总统唐纳德·特朗普、历任总统、负责保护他们的安保人员以及随行记者。
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一名曾为前总统比尔·克林顿执掌核“橄榄球”（应急指挥手提箱）的退役空军中校表示，上月为保护特朗普免遭潜在袭击而在土耳其安卡拉实施的这场非同寻常的空军一号调包戏码，绝非史无前例。
“这策划得太精妙了，”退役空军中校罗伯特·“巴兹”·帕特森在接受福克斯新闻数字频道采访时表示，“真希望我当时也能参与其中，这次行动做得太漂亮了。”
但帕特森警告称，曝光此类行动背后至关重要的国家安全机密，可能会在未来多年内让总统、军事人员和白宫记者团陷入危险。
帕特森曾担任克林顿两年的高级军事助手，负责总统的应急卫星手提箱。在周三接受的20分钟采访中，他解释了总统假目标、飞机调换以及其他欺骗手段是如何长期被用作保护总司令、其高级官员以及“受保护的”空军一号随行记者团的工具。
特朗普使用餐车和空军一号假目标规避伊朗威胁：报道
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让帕特森感到担忧的，并非特朗普的安保团队使用了这一战术——包括他在克林顿政府期间亲身参与过的餐车调包手段——而是此类行动的具体细节如今正被泄露给公众。
“我希望他们能彻查到底，”帕特森说，“在我看来，不管是谁泄露了此事，肯定是该行动中身居高位的人。”
“实际上确切知晓行动全貌的人寥寥无几，这是有意为之的，”他补充道，“所以如果有人泄露了消息，那一定是参与了行动的人，这让我极度恐惧。”
“假目标”空军一号由美军战机护航，官员证实
唐纳德·特朗普总统于2026年7月8日在英国萨福克郡的米尔登霍尔皇家空军机场登上卡塔尔捐赠的新空军一号，此前他在土耳其参加北约领导人峰会。（乔纳森·恩斯特/路透社）
帕特森的此番警告正值福克斯新闻周三报道之际：上月特朗普在土耳其安卡拉秘密调换飞机后，被用作假目标的老式总统专机747并非毫无护航就升空。
一名特朗普政府高级官员告诉福克斯新闻，美国战机为这架飞往英国的飞机提供了护航。据该官员透露，国务卿马可·卢比奥和财政部长斯科特·贝森特以及随行记者团成员也在机上。记者们此前被要求关闭舷窗遮阳帘。
帕特森表示，战机护航正是他在高威胁环境下会预期采取的保护措施。
特朗普称自己是伊朗的“头号目标”，冲突升级引发暗杀担忧
唐纳德·特朗普总统于2026年7月8日在英国米尔登霍尔皇家空军机场更换飞机返回华盛顿后，在新的卡塔尔捐赠空军一号的媒体舱内接受记者采访。（乔纳森·恩斯特/路透社）
“没错，尤其是在进入战区时，”当被问及总统专机在这种情况下是否通常会由战机护航时，帕特森说道。
“我们在前往高威胁战区时肯定会这么做，”他说，“1997年克林顿总统出访时我们就这么做了。几周前特朗普出访时我们也这么做了，未来不管哪位总统上台，我们都会这么做。”
特朗普的狡猾调机计划引发对留在机上乘客安全的质疑
“我们一直在使用假目标”
特朗普7月8日从安卡拉北约峰会返程的行程涉及一场精心策划的欺骗行动。
特朗普公开登上了那架熟悉的蓝白涂装总统专机747，随后在无人看见的情况下被转移至机场餐车，换乘至一架较小的空军C-32A专机。那架老式747随后飞往英国，而特朗普则单独启程。他后来在英国与总统专机会合，随后搭乘卡塔尔捐赠的新型747继续行程。
特朗普周二表示，他是遵照特勤局和军方的指示行事。
帕特森表示，让潜在攻击者对总统行踪产生混淆的整体策略是常规操作。
白宫在特朗普秘密调机后推动维护记者可信度的相关流程
唐纳德·特朗普总统于2026年7月8日在英国萨福克郡米尔登霍尔皇家空军机场与安保人员见面，他此前在土耳其参加北约领导人峰会后更换飞机，搭乘卡塔尔捐赠的空军一号。（乔纳森·恩斯特/路透社）
“我们一直在使用假目标，”他说，“车队路线也会用假目标。”
“你有时会看到两辆专车在桥梁和立交桥下调换，飞机也是同样的道理，尤其是在国际出访时。总会有两架空军一号，显然其中一架是假目标，同时也可作为备用机，以防主专机出现故障。”
“所以我们已经这么做很多年了。”
“这方法奏效，”他补充道，“如果有人想要了解其具体运作方式，那将格外令人不安，而且会在我们美国的体制中引发多年的连锁反应。”
特勤局特工因涉嫌泄露行动安全信息接受调查，涉及JD·万斯安保团队
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这就是为何他认为，曝光此次行动细节的要求可能会造成比公众审视本身更严重的危害。
帕特森表示，这些保护措施不仅是为了特朗普、克林顿或任何一位总统个人，更是为了确保总统职位本身的延续性。
“特朗普总统只剩两年任期了，”他说，“这些安保方案在可预见的未来仍将存在，而且在过去已经实施了相当长一段时间。所以这不仅仅关乎特朗普。这些方案的存在是为了保护不管是谁担任总统以及其身边团队的安全。”
帕特森是一名保守派人士，也是直言不讳的《纽约时报》畅销书作家，曾强烈批评过他曾为其执掌核提包的克林顿。他警告称，针对特朗普的分裂政治对美国国家安全构成危险。
巴特勒事件两年后，针对特朗普的威胁持续不断，暗杀企图成为焦点
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“就像我当时为克林顿总统工作——我并不是克林顿总统的狂热支持者，但白宫确实聘请我担任这个职位——我曾向总统职位宣誓效忠，我也确实做到了，”帕特森说，“我认为现在为特朗普总统工作的人，不管他们喜不喜欢他，不管他们认同他的政治理念与否，都必须明白，我们——特勤局人员、安保机构——存在的意义是保护这位公职人员和这个职位本身。”
克林顿也曾用过餐车调包手法
帕特森还透露，特朗普并非他所知首位使用机场餐车进行秘密转移的总统：“据我所知，克林顿总统是第一个这么做的。”
就在特朗普在安卡拉进行飞机调换的数十年前，帕特森表示，曾有一次用餐车悄悄将克林顿送上总统专机，当时这件事从未被公开报道过。
“我不便透露过多细节，但克林顿总统无法从前舱登机梯上去，”他说，“所以我们用了一辆餐车，将他从飞机后部送上飞机，除了我们少数几个人之外，在场的其他人都不知情。我们从未告诉过任何人，也没人报道过这件事。”
“我们当时几乎是秘密返回华盛顿的。我们之前也这么做过。1997年我陪同克林顿总统进行对波斯尼亚的突袭访问时，就是这么做的。他在平安夜前往波斯尼亚慰问部队，当时我们没有告诉任何人。我全程参与了那次行程，当天连续飞行36小时。我们没有透露任何消息，记者们也不知情，他们从未抱怨过。”
“那次行动很重要，我们想在无人知晓的情况下将克林顿总统送入战区。而这正是当时特朗普面临的情况：他们想在无人知晓的情况下将他带离潜在战区。”
“我们一直在这么做。这很安全、很可靠，公众不需要知道这些。”
历任总统曾多次为前往危险地区的行程使用保密和欺骗手段。克林顿在2000年访问巴基斯坦时使用了假目标飞机，此后的历任总统也曾秘密或严格限制知情范围地前往伊拉克、阿富汗和乌克兰。不同政府时期，具体情况和随行记者的知情程度有所不同。
暴露行动方案“极其危险”
帕特森驳斥了有关特朗普的行动不当危及继续留在老式总统专机上的记者和官员的批评。
他指出，这架飞机上不仅搭载了记者，还有空军机组人员和高级政府官员——正如福克斯新闻现在报道的那样，还有战机护航。
“我们也不会让这些人员陷入危险，”帕特森直截了当地说道，谈及空军机组人员时。
他认为，一些媒体批评忽视了总统出行所涉及的更广泛安保体系。
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“社交媒体和主流媒体上的很多言论都与事实不符，”帕特森说，“这实际上令人不安，因为这不仅会危及特朗普总统，还会危及未来的总统们。”
帕特森称，曝光此类安保程序的行为“极其危险”且“不负责任”。
他表示，危险不仅局限于总统本人。
“这会危及行动中的每一个人——特勤局人员、军事助手、处于待命状态的空军人员、处于待命状态的陆军人员，”帕特森说。
这位退役军官表示，总统保护计划故意采用分舱式管理，只有极少数人知晓完整行动细节。
这也是为何消息泄露的源头让他格外担忧。
帕特森：曝光细节可能让未来战区访问变得不可能
这张照片显示记者们从安卡拉登上空军一号飞机，飞机前部停着一辆餐车。（泳池摄影）
帕特森警告称，披露过多总统欺骗战术的细节可能还会带来长期代价：未来的总司令可能会完全丧失对部队进行突袭访问或进入高威胁地区的能力。
他认为，如果这些战术变得可预测，规划者将不得不设计全新的安保程序。
“如果我们曝光一切，我们将不得不彻底 overhaul 美国整个安保体系，”帕特森说，警告此举可能会让“总统职位和内阁成员陷入极其危险的境地”。
当被问及过度曝光此类项目是否会有效阻止特朗普或未来总统进行某些高风险海外访问时，帕特森表示同意。
“没错，”他说。
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对帕特森而言，这场围绕特朗普专机行程的争论不仅仅关乎一位总统、一个记者团或一次土耳其返程航班。
他警告称，如今被公开拆解的这些战术，可能就是未来拯救某一位总统以及随行所有人所需的手段。
“我们只需要别去碰它们，”帕特森说。
埃里克·麦克是突发新闻记者和撰稿人，周日至周四美国东部时间上午6点至下午2点工作，尤其关注引领新闻周期的政治、选举、外交事务和政府相关报道。
Man who carried Clinton nuclear ‘football’ reveals what ‘scares the hell out of me’ about Air Force One story
2026-08-13T10:41:43-04:00 / Fox News
Retired Air Force Lt Col Robert Patterson suspects someone ‘highly placed’ leaked story of Trump’s Air Force One swap
By Eric Mack Fox News
Published August 13, 2026 10:41am EDT
Air Force One leaker was ‘highly placed,’ former Clinton nuclear bag man suspects
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Buzz Patterson says decoy operations are “there for a reason” — and exposing how they work could endanger President Donald Trump, future presidents, crews protecting them and the press.
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A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who carried the nuclear “football” for former President Bill Clinton says the extraordinary Air Force One shell game departing Ankara, Turkey, last month to protect President Donald Trump from a potential attack was hardly unprecedented.
“It was brilliant,” retired Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson told Fox News Digital. “I wish I had been a part of it. That’s how well done it was.”
But Patterson is warning that exposing the vital national security secrets behind such operations could put presidents, military personnel and the White House press corps in danger for years to come.
Patterson served as Clinton’s senior military aide for a period of two years and was responsible for the president’s emergency satchel, and in a 20-minute interview Wednesday, he explained how presidential decoys, aircraft swaps and other acts of deception are longstanding tools used to protect the commander in chief, his senior officials and the “privileged” Air Force One press corps.
TRUMP USED CATERING TRUCK, AIR FORCE ONE DECOY TO EVADE IRAN THREAT: REPORT
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What alarms him, Patterson said, is not that Trump’s security team used the tactic — including the catering truck sleight of hand he was intimately a part of during the Clinton administration — but that details of how it was done are now spilling into public view.
“I hope that they prosecute this to the fullest,” Patterson said. “Whoever leaked that, in my opinion, and having been involved in this, was highly placed in that process.”
“There’s only a few people who actually know exactly what’s going down, and that’s by design,” he added. “So if somebody leaked it, it was somebody involved in the process, and that scares the hell out of me.”
‘DECOY’ AIR FORCE ONE WAS PROTECTED BY US FIGHTER JETS, OFFICIAL SAYS
President Donald Trump boards the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, Britain, after attending a NATO leaders summit in Turkey, on July 8, 2026.(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
His warning comes as Fox News reported Wednesday that the legacy presidential 747 used as a decoy after Trump secretly switched planes in Ankara, Turkey, last month was not sent into the sky unprotected.
A senior Trump administration official told Fox News that U.S. fighter jets protected the aircraft on its flight to the United Kingdom. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were also aboard with members of the traveling press corps, according to the official. Reporters had been instructed to keep their window shades closed.
Patterson said the fighter escort was exactly the sort of protection he would expect in a high-threat environment.
TRUMP SAYS HE’S IRAN’S ‘NO. 1’ TARGET AS RENEWED CONFLICT RAISES ASSASSINATION FEARS
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the press cabin of the new, Qatari-gifted Air Force One after changing planes to return to Washington from RAF Mildenhall, Britain, July 8, 2026.(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
“Yes, especially into war zones,” Patterson said, when asked whether presidential aircraft are customarily escorted by fighter jets in such circumstances.
“We damn sure always do when we’re going to a theater of high threat,” he said. “We did it with President Clinton in ’97. And we did it with Trump just a couple weeks ago, and we’ll do it with whoever the next president is.”
TRUMP’S SLY PLANE SWITCH RAISES EYEBROWS OVER SAFETY OF PASSENGERS LEFT BEHIND ON BOARD
‘We use decoys all the time’
Trump’s July 8 departure from the NATO summit in Ankara involved a carefully staged deception.
Trump publicly boarded the familiar blue-and-white presidential 747 before being moved out of sight in an airport catering vehicle and transferred to a smaller Air Force C-32A. The legacy 747 then departed for Britain while Trump traveled separately. He later reunited with the presidential aircraft in the United Kingdom before continuing his journey aboard the newer, Qatari-donated 747.
Trump said Tuesday that he was following the direction of the Secret Service and the military.
Patterson said the broader concept of confusing potential attackers about the president’s movements is routine.
WHITE HOUSE PUSHED FOR PROTOCOL TO PRESERVE CORRESPONDENTS’ CREDIBILITY AFTER TRUMP’S SECRET PLANE SWITCH
President Donald Trump greets security forces members at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, Britain, after arriving to switch to the Qatari-gifted Air Force One following his participation in a NATO leaders summit in Turkey, July 8, 2026.(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
“We use decoys all the time,” he said. “We use decoy in the motorcade routes.”
“You’ll sometimes see the two beasts will switch out under bridges and overpasses. We do the same thing with airplanes, especially in international trips. There’s always two Air Force Ones that go. Obviously, one’s a decoy and it’s also a spare for spare parts in case something happens to the primary.
“So we’ve been doing it for years.
“It works,” he added, “and for people to want to have visibility into actually how it works would be particularly troubling and it would cause reverberations in our American system for years.”
SECRET SERVICE AGENT ON JD VANCE’S DETAIL INVESTIGATED FOR ALLEGEDLY LEAKING OPERATIONAL SECURITY INFO
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That is why, he argued, demands to expose the mechanics of the latest operation risk doing more damage than the public scrutiny is worth.
Patterson said the protections are intended not merely for Trump, Clinton or any individual president, but to ensure continuity of the presidency itself.
“President Trump’s only got two more years,” he said. “These programs are going to be in place for the foreseeable future, and they’ve been in place in our past for quite a while. So it’s not just about Trump. These programs exist to protect no matter who the president is and the team around him.”
Patterson, who is a conservative and outspoken New York Times bestselling author highly critical of the man he carried the nuclear football for, warned divisive politics against Trump is dangerous for U.S. national security.
TWO YEARS AFTER BUTLER, THREATS AGAINST TRUMP KEEP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT IN SHARP FOCUS
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“Like I was with President Clinton — I wasn’t a huge President Clinton fan, but they hired me into that position, the White House did — and I swore an oath to the office of the presidency, and I did it,” Patterson said. “And I think that the people that are working for President Trump right now, whether they like him or don’t like him, or agree with his politics or don’t agree with this politics, they have to understand that we’re there — the Secret Service guys, the apparatus is there — to protect the human being and the office.”
Clinton’s own catering truck maneuver
Patterson also revealed that Trump was not the first president he knew of to use an airport catering vehicle as part of a clandestine movement: “As far as I know, President Clinton was the first one to do it.”
Decades before Trump was moved between aircraft in Ankara, Patterson said a catering truck was used to discreetly move Clinton aboard a presidential aircraft during an episode that was never publicly reported at the time.
“I won’t go into a lot of detail, but, President Clinton was incapable of going up the front steps,” he said. “So we used a catering truck to get them onto the back of the airplane, unbeknownst to anybody else that was there except for a few of us. And we never told anybody and nobody ever reported it.”
TRUMP HAS BECOME AMERICA’S MOST TARGETED LEADER, FACING THREATS EVERY FEW MONTHS
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“And we flew back to D.C. kind of unannounced. And we’ve done it before. I was on with President Clinton in 1997 when we did the surprise visit to Bosnia. So he went to Bosnia on Christmas Eve to surprise the troops. So we didn’t tell anybody then. I was all on that trip the entire way, 36 hours nonstop that day. And we didn’t tell anybody, and the press didn’t know, and they never complained about it.
“And it was important. We wanted to get President Clinton into a war zone without anybody else knowing about it. And that’s kind of what was happening to Trump. They wanted to him out of a potential war zone, without anybody knowing about it.
“We do it all the time. It’s safe, it’s reliable, and the public does not need to know.”
Past presidents have repeatedly used secrecy and deception for travel into dangerous areas. Clinton used decoy aircraft during a 2000 trip to Pakistan, while subsequent presidents have made covert or tightly held trips to Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. The precise circumstances and level of knowledge afforded to traveling reporters have differed between administrations.
‘Incredibly dangerous’ to expose the playbook
Patterson pushed back against criticism that Trump’s operation improperly endangered the reporters and officials who continued aboard the legacy presidential aircraft.
He noted that the aircraft was carrying not only journalists but an Air Force crew and senior government officials — and, as Fox News has now reported, was protected by fighter aircraft.
“We’re not going to put those people at risk either,” Patterson said flatly of the Air Force personnel.
He argued that some of the media criticism has lost sight of the wider security apparatus involved in presidential travel.
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“A lot of what is being spouted on social media and in our mainstream media is factually incorrect,” Patterson said, “and it’s actually troubling because it’s going to endanger not only President Trump, but future presidents to come.”
Patterson called efforts to expose the procedures “incredibly dangerous” and “irresponsible.”
The danger, he said, extends beyond the president.
“It endangers everybody in the process — Secret Service guys, military aide guys, Air Force guys that are on alert, Army guys that are on alert,” Patterson said.
The retired officer said presidential protection plans are deliberately compartmentalized so that very few people know the full operation.
That is what makes the source of the disclosures particularly concerning to him.
Patterson says exposure could make future war-zone trips impossible
This photo shows the press boarding the Air Force One aircraft from Ankara, while a catering truck is located at the front of the plane.(Pool)
Patterson warned there could also be a longer-term cost to revealing too much about presidential deception tactics: Future commanders in chief could lose the ability to make surprise visits to troops or enter high-threat regions at all.
If the tactics become predictable, he argued, planners would have to devise entirely new security procedures.
“If we were to expose everything, we would have to overhaul the entire security apparatus of the United States of America,” Patterson said, warning that doing so could put “the presidency and the Cabinet members in incredible danger.”
Asked whether overexposing such programs could effectively prevent Trump or future presidents from making some high-risk overseas trips, Patterson agreed.
“That’s correct,” he said.
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For Patterson, that makes the argument over the Trump flight bigger than one president, one press corps or one flight out of Turkey.
The tactics being publicly dissected today, he warned, may be the same ones needed to save a future president — and everyone traveling with that president — tomorrow.
“We just need to leave them alone,” Patterson said.
Eric Mack is a breaking news reporter and writer Sunday through Thursday, 6 a.m. ET to 2 p.m. ET, with a particular interest in stories that lead the news cycle on politics, elections, foreign affairs and government.