Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent on Trump hiding in catering truck in secret plane swap over Iran threat

US media is reporting Donald Trump secretly swapped planes as he left a NATO summit in Turkey last month, to evade a possible Iranian threat.

It's believed the US President boarded Air Force One in view of media, before being covertly moved to a military aircraft with the help of a catering truck.

The White House has not confirmed the secret switch, but reports claim it came after credible warnings.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says this move has prompted concerns after journalists and personnel were on board the original plane. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dan Mitchinson, US correspondents with US Elodn. Hello, Heather, So
what about Trump getting on the Kajuring truck.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Ah? Boy, this is just exploded in the last few hours.
I mean, this happened as he left Turkey back on
July eighth. We're only finding out about it right now.
And this came a day or so after we started
more strikes on Iran. And what happened is he initially
boarded the presidential seven forty seven. You had the cameras,
you had the reporters. Everybody saw him go up and

(00:28):
into the plane, and then he and several aids reportedly
slipped out another door and into an airport catering truck
and that transported them to an Air Force C thirty
two A I believe, And meanwhile you had staff and
White House reporters still on plane. This was because there
was apparently a credible security threat to the president.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Now, how was it that we found out about? And
then the critical by the way, the critible security threat
is an Iranian assassination plot, wasn't it?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
It was? It was And people are saying, well, stuff
like this just never happens. But you know, he's not
the first president that this has happened to back in
I believe it was two thousand, President Clinton flew from
India to Pakistan in an unmarked plane following Air Force
one because there had also been a security threat against him.
So it has happened. At the time, there was only
one reporter I believe she was working for USA Today

(01:16):
who actually knew about it. The White House took her
aside and said, we're going to have to do this
extraordinary security measure. We're keeping it quiet until we land.
And you know, she's speaking out about this right now.
But it's kind of caught everybody by surprise over here.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Now, how was it that we found out about this?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Because the Washington Post released a story They had some
insiders from the White House. They did a little digging around,
and they found out that this had happened. And then
people started looking at the video and connecting the dots,
and you know, it's understandable. I suppose people are saying,
if you have a credible security threat, you know this
assassination attempt like you mentioned. But there's still some blowback

(01:54):
because I think the original plane was used as a decoy,
and you have questions about the decision to keep the
journalists and the staff, like I mentioned on Board on
what officials considered, you know, such a threat. So there
are a few upset people about this.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
What are the concerns about the wine styles?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
It's a boy in California. They are tanking right now.
We've did a twenty year low in some areas where
a major producer and exporter of wine through the world.
Canada has been a big market for US. They account
for about forty percent. They've cut back because of tariffs.
We send some of your way too, to New Zealand,
although you guys export a lot more to us, but
slower sales and the tariffs mean we're not buying as

(02:32):
much of your wine these days. And unfortunately, the wineries
aren't doing well over here because they need they need
so much water and we've had so much heat and
the fires over here. Wine is very expensive to produce.
So what you have now are farmers that are growing agave,
which is a lot cheaper and it doesn't require as
much water, and it's used for making tequila, which is

(02:53):
seeing a big surge in sales over here. Now.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
I mean that probably it's probably on has captured the
guys hasn't it because everybody that I know is drinking
cocktails and tequila and spurts now instead of wine.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, I guess your economy is doing a lot better
than ours. You do produce quite a bit down. I
know this in the South Island as well as the
North as well too.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
But one of those things, it wasn't a finance this thing.
It's simply a preference thing now, isn't it? Like wine
is kind of it's I would have I would have
thought wine is kind of on the tail end of
its popularity because.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
On the dip down, well it is. I mean people
do over here still. I mean the Northern California especially
has a very big wine culture, especially with Napa Valley,
and you get a lot of tours over here, and
there are parts of the country where you do have
wine is a very big, you know, tourism industry as well,
even up in Washington. So it's it's more of a lifestyle,

(03:48):
you know, over here that then I think it is
in a lot of other parts.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Hey, Dan, thanks very much, as always, appreciate it, mat
look after yourself. This is Dan Mitchison, US correspondent. For
more from hither Dukelassy Allen Drive.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
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