Two accounts exist of why the president flew home from the NATO summit on the old Air Force One rather than the Qatari 747-8 that replaced it. His account: the new jet was making stops at US military bases 'to show it off to the troops because the aircraft is magnificent' [1]. The account of officials briefed on the plane's retrofit, as reported by The New York Times: 'the Secret Service was concerned enough about Trump's proximity to the country while in Ankara to force the president to swap planes on the way out' [1].
The country in question was Turkey; the concern, per the same officials, was the aircraft itself. The Qatari jet lacks 'the same defensive countermeasures that were security features of the old model, including its advanced antimissile capabilities' [1]. The White House response came from communications director Steven Cheung, who did not dispute the swap: 'The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff' [1]. A security protocol is not an antimissile system, and the statement names neither.
The government's fuller answer arrived this weekend, addressed not to the questions in the story but to the people who wrote it. The Justice Department subpoenaed the four Times reporters on the Air Force One coverage - Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt - to appear before a federal grand jury in Manhattan next Wednesday. Federal agents delivered some of the subpoenas at the reporters' homes [2].
Times lawyer David McCraw: 'The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects' [2]. The department's defense: 'Reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are... we are not going to ignore the law and stop investigating' [2].
The timing supplies its own context. The night before the subpoenas surfaced, the president posted that '1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded' and aimed at Iran, responding to an assassination plot he says targets him [3] - a threat environment we examined in a separate piece this morning. Read together, the record of the week is this: officials briefed on his own plane say it cannot defend against missiles the way the old one could, the president says the plane was busy being magnificent, and the government's investigative energy is pointed at the reporters who wrote down the difference [1][2].
The countermeasures reporting rests on unnamed officials, which is worth stating plainly; the subpoenas, the grand jury date, and the agents at the doorsteps are on the record and undisputed [2]. No one from the administration has yet said the countermeasures reporting is wrong - the objection on file is that someone told it to reporters.
