r/OutOfTheLoop • u/No-Race-93 • Aug 13 '26
Unanswered What's going on with people leaving over Trump's plane swap?
I saw a bunch of memes showing Trump in the same diagram used to show how Saddam was hiding and now I am hearing people are leaving his administration.
Apparently this occurred months ago though so I am not sure if this is true or just an excuse and there is more to the story.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SipsTea/comments/1vnebzl/when_yo_realize_the_cult_leader_never_had_your/
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u/eatingpotatochips Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
Answer: We don't really know why Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving. The official line is that she is leaving to spend more time with her family. It is (probably) a meme that she is leaving because Trump put a plane full of staffers and journalists in danger while he was scuttled away in a catering box.
Context: Recently, Trump swapped planes because there was a supposed Iranian threat on his plane. However, his security detail didn't tell anyone on the original plane, so both planes flew and the original plane was essentially used as a decoy in case the Iranians decided to try to have a go at Trump. The people on the original plane were understandably miffed at being used as decoys because they could've gotten shot down and weren't given the opportunity to make alternate travel arrangements.
The meme is that when Leavitt's boss shows that he is willing to use her as a decoy to protect himself from Iranians, that's a sign to quit. This had led some people to speculate that Leavitt was on the decoy plane, but there's no evidence of that yet.
Edit: It is unlikely Leavitt was on the plane, since she came back from maternity leave on July 16th and the plane switcheroo happened on the 8th.
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u/BarnabasShrexx Aug 13 '26
Man... imagine being surprised by trumpy throwing you under the bus. Or plane i guess.
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u/GramercyPlace Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
Et tu, Don-tay?
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u/BalognaPonyParty Aug 13 '26
fuuuck that's funny
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u/FishFloyd Aug 13 '26
Wait okay, so I'm perfectly familiar with "Et tu, Brutus?", and also Dante the poet (if that's relevant)
What is funny about this? I feel like I'm missing something
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u/Brainkenstein Aug 13 '26
Get even more perfect with "Et tu, Brute?" as that's how the line goes.
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u/Beegrene Aug 14 '26
To elaborate, in Latin, nouns will have different suffixes depending on what part of speech they are. In the case of Brutus, the root of the name is
Brutwith a corresponding suffix for whatever he's doing in the sentence.-usis the second declension singular masculine nominative case suffix. When a person or thing with the masculine grammatical gender is the subject of a sentence, that's the case you'd use. In most non-Latin languages, the convention is to use this case when talking about a man's name, and this is why so many Roman men's names end with-us. In the line "Et tu, Brute?", Caesar is using the vocative case, not the nominative. The vocative case is for when you're addressing someone directly, and has the-esuffix, pronounced "ay".21
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u/Tenaciousleesha Aug 14 '26
As Eddie Izzard said, It's a silly-billy language. Elephantatus Hannibalatus Comin-right-at-us!
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u/nashbrownies Aug 13 '26
It is but a lot of phones auto translate comments now, if you click whatever icon you have for it, it turns back into Latin
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u/nashbrownies Aug 13 '26
It's probably auto translate lmao.
I just noticed the little blue icon next to the comment. I noticed the same thing and was wondering.
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u/midnightgirlj Aug 13 '26
It's because Brutus was spoken to in that famous line, which means his name was pronounced "Brew-tay" (basic latin rules)
Their joke was also fitting Donald into that format by saying "Don-tay." Donte, like Brute, wouldn't come across as well in text and look like a confused spelling of Dante, which is somehow what happened anyway, lol 😅
I liked the joke, +2.
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u/Umutuku Aug 14 '26
Being a Trump supporter involves two things:
1) Being thrown under the bus.
2) Being abandoned by the bus to freeze in a remote field.
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u/Kellosian Aug 14 '26
Trump's entire adult life is full of people thinking "Ah, surely I will be the one to profit off of working with Trump! All those other people he betrayed and screwed over just did it wrong, I have the secret sauce!" one after another. Giuliani threw away every scrap of goodwill and relevance he got on 9/11 for the sake of a man who can barely stay awake for 15 minutes without shitting himself
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u/TALKTOME0701 Aug 14 '26
My dad used to tell us never fool yourself into thinking you're the exception.
These guys insist on believing they are
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u/BadmiralHarryKim Aug 14 '26
The Mooch is doing okay.
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u/ElNakedo Aug 15 '26
He also only worked there for barely a week.
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u/BadmiralHarryKim Aug 15 '26
He worked there for exactly "one mooch" which is as weird a coincidence as Lou Gehrig dying of Lou Gehrig's disease.
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u/Vindepomarus Aug 14 '26
Did someone mention the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference? That would be embarrassing!
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u/878Vikings Aug 14 '26
It's like chase the lady. Everyone knows it's a scam but they think they're smart enough to beat it.
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u/eatingpotatochips Aug 13 '26
Rubio didn't seem to mind, but maybe he has Stockholm Syndrome that started after Trump called him lil' Marco a decade ago.
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u/BaldBombshell Aug 13 '26
Rubio is desperate for Trumpy's endorsement for when he tries again in 2028.
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u/LongMelford Aug 13 '26
Rubio’s got big shoes to fill.
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u/TheCuriosity Aug 14 '26
do we known if he is still walking around in those big ass shoes trump bought him?
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u/KinkyDuck2924 Aug 15 '26
He is actually! He has been seen a few times continuing to wear them lmao. You'd think he would just buy a pair of them same shoes in his actual size and pretend they are the ones he was gifted. It takes dedication to walk around in clown shoes like that lol.
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u/Relative_Fix_6996 Aug 14 '26
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
His “too big shoes” (a gift from his boss).
Have you seen his feet???https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/12/politics/video/rubio-big-shoes-trump-florsheim-digvid-vrtc
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u/eatingpotatochips Aug 13 '26
Trump's endorsement might be worth as much as one of his poopy diapers by 2028...
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u/HoodieGalore Aug 14 '26
"You guys make fun of me 13 or 14 more times, and I swear, I'm outta here"
-Choda-Boy
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u/olewhatsisname Aug 14 '26
Rubio knew it was Israeli bullshit and went anyway. Now he looks like a tough guy who trusts the secret service and military to keep him alive and will use that to his advantage as he rebuilds his image.
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u/Away_Advisor3460 Aug 14 '26
To be fair, I'd be willing to risk death if the alternative was being stuck in a confined metal tube with Trump for several hours. Pretty sure they've had to start hiding the parachutes in Air Force One for that reason already.
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u/LockeAbout Aug 13 '26
I can honestly say there's not a single case of him throwing someone under the bus.
Because he does it constantly.
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u/BrightCarver Aug 13 '26
He used to throw people under the bus. He still does, but he used to, too.
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u/Being_268 Aug 13 '26
Mike Pence has entered the chat.
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u/cptjtk13 Aug 13 '26
I mean it's par for the course. That's like saying "imagine being a 6 year old who is surprised a fictional man who travels the entire world in one night to deliver presents isnt real". MAGA is potentially the most gullible group in history and have been surprised by every poor thing Trump has done because they act like 6 year olds. If Daddy says it's real, then it is!!!
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u/DeshTheWraith Aug 14 '26
Except they'll also just not believe him when people give them verbatim quotes from the laundry list of downright reprehensible to generally anti-American things Trump has said.
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u/oby100 Aug 13 '26
Well, usually Trump’s victims lose money or opportunity. Might have drawn the line at “potentially dying in a firey plane crash”
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u/Pixel_in_Valhalla Aug 14 '26
They always think surely it won't be like that for them - that they're somehow special to him. Nobody is. And yet, he casts a spell on people all the time.
Lots of the worst people in history also had that power over others and always disposed of them in a heartbeat. It's just something about us humans; a fatal weakness in us in proximity to power.
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u/Odd-Childhood-3923 Aug 14 '26
Like Mussolini and Kennedy
I sell the things you need to be
I exploit you, still you love me
Like Joseph Stalin and Gandhi
You won't have to follow me
Only you can set you free.
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u/Otherwise_Branch_771 Aug 14 '26
Obviously secret service is not telling everyone how they are evacuating the president.
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u/Dentonthomas Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
She's also the one who has to regularly face all of the journalists he left on the decoy plane.
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u/ChiLolla28 Aug 14 '26
Also every other president has always actually briefed the reporters of any threats or situations like this because they trust them and had a better working relationship with all of them. He also left cabinet members like Marco Rubio. And it was also because the stupid gift plane has no defenses.
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u/twenafeesh Aug 13 '26
I read that the press corps was on the decoy plane, so it stands to reason that Leavitt was too.
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u/Affinity4Constructs Aug 13 '26
They were, a reporter on Up First (NPR) confirmed themselves being on the "decoy" plane in an episode earlier this week.
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u/Alissinarr Aug 14 '26
Very surprisingly, Stephen Miller was on the decoy too
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u/jankenpoo Aug 14 '26
He’s the reason the decoy plane wasn’t attacked. He’s done more damage to the US than Iran could hope for!
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u/AydonusG Aug 14 '26
They were, and one of the reporters brought up security issues with Trump, to which he said "If I go, you go, right?"
Then wasn't on that plane anyway
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u/Reddditah Aug 14 '26
It may stand to reason, but has not actually been confirmed:
https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/08/13/karoline-leavitt-decoy-plane-turkey/
The WH also cannot be trusted with their version denying she was on, either.
Let's stick to facts here on OOTL.
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u/JohannesVanDerWhales Aug 13 '26
Probably worth noting he's gone through a bunch of press secretaries so it's plenty plausible that she's just leaving because the job is incredibly stressful.
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u/thatshoneybear Aug 14 '26
And for most women, it's really really hard to leave your little baby after maternity leave. I know we find a way to get through it, but I totally understand the feeling of "fuck everything, I'm staying home with my newborn. Nothing else matters." Especially when you have the means to do it.
It seems like a lot of people dismiss that as a true feeling? Like she's just making an excuse to leave? Could be a mix of a lot of things.
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u/CleverNickName-69 Aug 14 '26
Imagine coming back from maternity leave to find out that Trump used the reporters, Marco Rubio, and some of the people from your office as decoys when there was a credible threat the plane might be attacked, and you have to sit there in the same room with Trump and his new mistress who is totally being a bitch to you and he just lets her. Do you want to go defend him in the press room or at some point is it enough to make you quit and go home to take care of your baby?
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u/WaterSmooth8773 Aug 13 '26
The most unbelievable thing here is that Trump squeezed himself into a catering trolley. Now if they said that he disguised himself as an airline pilot or a stewardess I might believe it.
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u/jazzieberry Aug 13 '26
It was a catering truck, like a box truck. I was thinking the same when I first heard about this story until I saw the video lol
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u/uniklyqualifd Aug 13 '26
It's a container that gets lifted up to the level of the plane. Room for lots of people.
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u/Delta_Hammer Aug 13 '26
So he could have squeezed Levitt in there with him?
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u/rabbitlion Aug 13 '26
In theory yes but the press secretary will typically interact quite a bit with the press core so it doesn't really make sense to transfer her to the alternative military plane.
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u/captainhaddock Aug 16 '26
The most unbelievable thing here is that Trump squeezed himself into a catering trolley.
Apparently people on social media are calling it Operation Orange Chicken.
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u/FizzyBeverage Aug 14 '26
It stands to reason she very likely was onboard because Trump is a psychopath and basically didn't let her stop working for the entire maternity leave.
And then he used her as bait and left her on the plane Iran planned to attack.
Most likely reason for resignation. Her elderly husband is wealthy. She doesn't need to work. Her primary concern is fighting for the inheritance her stepchildren (each older than her) will plan to deny her.
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u/The_Razielim Aug 14 '26
Edit: It is unlikely Leavitt was on the plane, since she came back from maternity leave on July 16th and the plane switcheroo happened on the 8th.
I mean, quite frankly, even if she wasn't on the plane... you come back to work and the first thing you hear is "Hey so last week we thought the Iranians might try to take out the boss, so they hid him in a box so he could shit himself in peace for a couple hours... then herded a bunch of us onto Target #1 and pretended they were flying Die Gröpenfuhrer out, with us on the plane. Craaaaaazzzzzyyyyyyyy, right?"
Can't blame her for going "Heh. I'm in danger."
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u/kamekaze1024 Aug 13 '26
Can someone with knowledge protocol tell us if this is unique? I kinda figured that you kinda signed up to potentially be a decoy in case of threat to the POTUS. Or could he have really just told the passengers and they could’ve sneaked out with him easily?
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u/eatingpotatochips Aug 13 '26
Usually the president does not try to provoke wars with foreign powers which can make credible threats against Air Force One.
Also presidents try not to draw a lot of attention to Air Force One by complaining about how the Qatari jet is just so much better and that everyone should watch him be sad about having to fly on the old one.
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u/Rogue_Ref_NZ Aug 14 '26
Especially when the "new" Qatari AF1 doesn't have any missile defences installed that are standard in the older versions.
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u/guitarguywh89 Aug 13 '26
It’s only ever happened one time before (under Clinton in 2000) and the press were briefed
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u/Dear_Emergency6430 Aug 14 '26
This is unique in a way that it went down. There was a credible threat to Trump so they brought in a food server box truck. He got on it and left. They hurried him to another jet. The kicker is , nobody informed the press Corp or any other person on the "targeted" plane. That plane took off as well not given the choice of taking the risk of being shot down or making alternate plans for travel. The Coward never said anything to them. He protected himself without regard to the others. It has never happened before like that. The only other time a president switched planes due to a threat, he informed the press and whomever else was on plane with him. THAT is the difference between a coward and a human being.
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u/Throwawayalt129 Aug 14 '26
It's actually not completely unheard of. Multiple people who have been within the inner circle of previous presidents have come out and said something to the effect of "If there's a threat on the president's life the priority is protecting them. You signed up to be a part of the inner staff, if we need you to do something dangerous to protect the president you really don't have any say." I highly doubt they could've snuck everyone off the plane, and a few people who stayed knew about the plan. The issue in this situation is that the press wasn't pulled into the know on the situation. They're understandably pissed, and I honestly think that if they had been this wouldn't even remotely be newsworthy. The story now is less on the actual stunt and more on how Trump put the press in danger by doing it, which is why the press are running with it so hard. They want to make him look bad for putting them in danger.
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u/Oberyn_Kenobi_1 Aug 14 '26
They could have simply delayed the flight until the threat had been dealt with on the ground. And they have a Duty to Warn - meaning they were obligated to inform the other passengers that they were credibly in danger.
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u/furlesswookie Aug 13 '26
I honestly believe she is leaving her position because the demands of that job are more than a new parent can handle. Regardless if it was Trump, or any other President, mothers usually take 12 weeks of maternity and she took 4, and most of that time off included getting texts and calls from the President.
Better to exit now before we hit midterms; new barbie is about to have her hands full
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Aug 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/skaestantereggae Aug 13 '26
Let’s not let this go. The decoy plane was fucking Air Force 1
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u/AngelicDroid Aug 14 '26
I mean what else are you going to use as a decoy? It's not like we have a bunch of 747 with the same paint job to use as a decoy, we only have two.
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u/Unterdosis Aug 14 '26
How about not using a decoy at all, but instead making other arrangements while the plane remains grounded with a cover story (gotta restock Trumps lolicon collection)?
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u/jan_tonowan Aug 14 '26
Air Force 1 is literally any plane the president is flying in
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u/skaestantereggae Aug 14 '26
Look I get that but:
Ask the general public to identify Air Force 1, they’ll pick the iconic plane; and
In this case, it still was identified as Air Force 1, despite the President not being on it
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u/84theone Aug 14 '26
There are two of the customized presidential planes that are maintained, so there’s actually two of iconic ones. I guess a third now too thanks to that not a bribe plane Trump got from the Qataris but that one lacks a lot of the high tech defenses the other two have.
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u/Aggressive-Loquat808 Aug 13 '26
If the president wasn't onboard it wasn't air force one at that moment. But I get the point.
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u/eatingpotatochips Aug 13 '26
Leavitt was on maternity leave when the switcheroo happened. Plane swap: July 8th. Leavitt returned to work on July 16th.
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u/Alissinarr Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Leavitt was out 4 days in May for the birth of her daughter.
She just realized that her kids meant more to her than working for a man actively angering a terrorist regime and who would happily throw her to them so he can get away.
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u/redditadminssuckalot Aug 14 '26
Given that the entire press corps was on the decoy plane, I think we would have heard some reporting from any one of them that would confirm she was on the plane, which we haven’t.
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u/el_bentzo Aug 13 '26
Marco Rubio, Bessent and Stephen Miller were on the decoy plane with Leavitt. Hegseth was on a different plane
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u/SomeFunnyPhrase Aug 13 '26
We could also have a bit of hope that even without being on board the plane, the event was enough to make her realize he's no good.
I usually don't wanna give any of these fucks grace, but if she wasn't on board the plane and the event played a role in her resignation, it shows that they're not COMPLETELY hopeless.
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u/bugsyboybugsyboybugs Aug 13 '26
Eh, even if that were the case, it would just be the typical conservative stance that they’re only bothered by anything egregious when it affects them personally.
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u/SomeFunnyPhrase Aug 13 '26
Yeah, I doubt she actually changes, at all. Doesn't mean I wish to abandon all hope.
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u/theseanbeag Aug 14 '26
I'm almost certain she's leaving because she's been read in on the plan to steal the election and she's not willing to go to prison for treason. If Trump doesn't get his way, he won't give pardons to anyone involved and she likely knows this.
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u/DistributionLife1676 Aug 13 '26
Wasn't she still on maternity leave when this happened?
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u/eatingpotatochips Aug 13 '26
Yes, so she couldn't have been on the plane. Though it is jarring when your boss puts a bunch of your coworkers on a decoy plane that might be a target of an Iranian SAM.
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u/Pledgeofmalfeasance Aug 13 '26
Who was on the plane? Not just sycophants?
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u/eatingpotatochips Aug 13 '26
Decoy: Rubio, Bessent, some aides, and a bunch of reporters
Trump plane: Hegseth and some aides
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u/waitingtodiesoon Aug 13 '26
Not just some aides, his favorite aid who has a lot of control over him.
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u/Uninteresting_Vagina Aug 14 '26
Is she the one that supposedly leaves him creepy post it notes? I lose track of all of these jigsaw faces sycophants.
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u/CharlesDickensABox Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
The question of who got pulled off and who didn't is an interesting one. People that left with the president include Walt Nada, the Mar-a-Lago "pool boy" who was involved in stealing classified documents in 2020 and whose charges were mysteriously dropped after Trump reentered the presidency; and Natalie Harp, the assistant whose job includes carrying around a printer and printing out nice tweets about the president for him to read.
People who were not moved off the plane include spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, and one of the president's closest, most white power-aligned advisors, Stephen Miller. How that decision was made is anyone's guess.
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u/travelstuff Aug 15 '26
Natalie Harp, the assistant whose job includes carrying around a printer and printing out nice tweets about the president for him to read.
How is this real life. The president wants tweets printed for him. Just crazy
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u/ThickBoxx Aug 13 '26
There would be secret service, press, I imagine staff specifically who work on the plane, pilots obviously.
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u/Kovaelin Aug 13 '26
The most surprising thing would be Leavitt having enough of a mind of her own to react.
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u/Steel2050psn Aug 14 '26
I mean to be fair if my boss used me as a human shield I'd probably would quit too
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u/keeper_of_the_donkey Aug 14 '26
But it is also possible that once she heard about it, she realized that she might have been on the plane if she was there, which still may have led to the same decision.
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u/GlassCannon81 Aug 14 '26
Importantly, neither she nor anyone else who quits over the incident needs to have been on the plane. The fact it was done at all is reason enough to quit. Anyone in his orbit could been on that plane.
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u/HaxtonSale Aug 13 '26
Real talk though. If the threats were credible, wouldn't anything besides business as usual tip off the Iranians? It's meme worthy, but strategically sound on the secret services part
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u/SirDouglasMouf Aug 13 '26
Serious question, is this the correct use of the word "meme" ? As in a meme now is an entire story, not just a vibe
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u/pakcross Aug 13 '26
I doubt the plane switch is the reason. I would suspect that it's standard procedure for all Presidents. The more people who know about the swap, the more chance if the second plane being targeted instead.
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u/boopbaboop Aug 13 '26
Answer: Trump did a switcheroo maneuver last month where he boarded a different plane than Air Force One on his way back from Turkey, because he'd received threats against his life (how credible they were is disputed). This was a planned thing, not something they had to do suddenly because they were under direct gunfire or something. The plan was that he "boarded" Air Force One, then basically left through a back door onto a supplies truck that went to a different, smaller plane.
The part that bothered people is that he didn't tell most of the other people who were supposed to be on the plane with him that this switcheroo was happening. Had the threat been carried out successfully, most of the staff and all the journalists on board would have died without warning. This understandably upset some people who would have been in that group.
The thing is that this happened last month; it's just coming out now. So I wouldn't put too much stock into whether people quit or not over it, especially not his staff. However, it means we do know who Trump cared enough about to have on the second plane with him instead of leaving them on the decoy plane.
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u/Stoic702 Aug 13 '26
Do we know who he DID take with him? Im just now hearing about this and am genuinely curious.
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u/griffinsv Aug 13 '26
He took Dan Scavino, Natalie Harp & Walt Nauta in the catering thing. Plus Hegseth who boarded separately.
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u/DarkAlman Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
In context he took his social media manager, office manager, and his personal assistant / possible mistress.
So the guy that helps him tweet, the guy that helped move his illegal classified documents around Mar-a-lago, and the woman that prints out his news and cleans his diaper.
Hegseth probably only got on board because the planes crew was his department, so he knew about the switcheroo
"Some of you may die, but that's a risk I'm willing to take"
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u/derfy2 Aug 13 '26
In context he took his social media manager and his personal assistant / possible mistress.
Hegseth??? /s
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u/DarkAlman Aug 14 '26
I assume Hegseth only came along because it was a military jet and he had to be in on the switcheroo
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u/buy-american-you-fuk Aug 13 '26
possible mistress
JFC!
I could have gone the rest of my life without thinking that was possible...
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u/notsam57 Aug 14 '26
man, remember when bill clinton was impeached for getting a bj while president?
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Aug 14 '26
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u/esmifra Aug 14 '26
And looking at it cynically, he was impeached because republicans controlled congress and got an excuse.
It still failed in the senate.
Which is the exact same thing that happened to Trump years later, he was impeached by Congress but failed to go through in the senate.
In both cases they weren't removed from office and the party that controls the house needs to be the opposing party. Because this is basically just a game.
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u/knottygorl Aug 13 '26
Pretty sure Natalie Harp, the Human Printer was someone he did take
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u/Dangeryeezy Aug 14 '26
For those that don’t know, she has that moniker because she’s always around and ready to print out positive news clippings and articles to cheer Trump up when he’s down in the dumps.
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u/BabyInABar Aug 13 '26
Someone in another post said he took his diaper wrangler with him. Their words, not mine 🤣
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u/tunaman808 Aug 13 '26
It wasn't just that he "boarded another plane". It was that he boarded New Air Force One, then, without telling anyone, entered a catering truck that was lifted up to the NAFO. He was then moved (inside the truck) to Old Air Force One. He then did the reverse when they landed, so he could walk off NAFO as if he'd been on the plane the whole time.
Sorry, but that's pretty low: putting staff and reporters and crew at risk like that.
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u/PsychologicalPen8634 Aug 13 '26
Pretty sure New AF1 wasn’t a part of this.
Everyone was told he was flying old AF1 home, he “boarded it” then flew some other Air Force 757 to England where he then hopped on the new Saudi jet
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u/footsnax Aug 13 '26
Yeah technically he did board Air Force One because that's just the callsign of any plane the president is on. The other one is just the super fancy 747 he normally uses, it was probably callsign DT2040 or something.
I know Marine One is the same for helicopters, but I've always wondered if he had a naval code too.
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u/ReXone3 Aug 14 '26
yeah so the ATC rule is that if the president is on any flight by a service component, it becomes [service branch] One -- so if he was aboard a naval plane it would indeed be Navy One. Rarely happens, but if it were a private flight, it would be correctly known as "Executive One".
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u/beachedwhale1945 Aug 13 '26
Answer: Earlier this week, various media outlets began reporting that Trump probably did not fly back from a summit in Turkey on Air Force One1. Trump flew out on the Qatari Jet gifted to him a couple years ago, but left Turkey by boarding Air Force One. This aircraft is probably the most well-protected transport in the world, and while details are not all known for obvious reasons, this includes significant electronic warfare capabilities and the two Air Force Ones are hardened against EMPs. At the time, we recognized that the aircraft changeover indicated a significant threat, so the President boarded a more secure aircraft, as the Qatari Jet has not received such extensive upgrades.
However, it now appears that Trump didn’t leave Turkey on Air Force One. The threats by Iran to assassinate Trump were considered serious enough to invoke a secret plan of subterfuge: no matter how good your protection is, the best protection is to not be identified as a worthwhile target in the first place. Video shows a supply truck was pulled up to the aircraft at the time, then shortly after the President boarded Air Force One it left the aircraft and moved to another area of the airport. Here it met one of the many other transport aircraft that fly with the President, ones so innocuous that people forget they are even there, and it appears Trump boarded this transport secretly. Importantly, Presidential Staff are the media that travels with the President boarded Air Force One, and few if any were told the President wasn’t aboard.2 Trump then secretly boarded Air Force One at a stopover in Germany, and it appeared to all the world that he had always been aboard.
Now that this has come out, it is apparently causing significant shockwaves. For those who were on Air Force One, who thought they were among Trump’s closet confidants, the discovery that they were left to potentially die as a decoy is a severe shock. Perhaps this was enough to take them from inner circle to wanting out, perhaps it’s just the straw that broke the camel’s back, perhaps it’s just a convenient excuse to be quietly forced out. You’d have to ask each person individually, and then evaluate if they are telling the truth or going along with whatever story they want to tell.
1 Technically Air Force One is the callsign typically used for any Air Force aircraft that carries the President. However, colloquially it is used for the large converted airliners, whether or not the President is aboard. In this case and for clarity, I will use Air Force One to refer to the blue-and-white VC-25As and the Qatari Jet for the 747-8/VC-25 “Bridge” that was gifted to Trump.
2 Technically this hasn’t been proven, but the circumstantial evidence is so strong we can treat it as proven (I’m personally convinced). It makes sense that the Secret Service and Air Force would have had plans like this already in place for contingency operations every time the President flies somewhere.
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u/eepos96 Aug 13 '26
2: the plan was proven. Just the Leavitt leaving because of it has not been proven. It is just plain coincidense we hear of leavitt leaving and this plane thing at hhe same time.
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u/DarkAlman Aug 13 '26
Answer: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced today that she will be leaving the Trump admin, news which comes suspiciously less than 24 hours after it was confirmed that Trump left her and numerous other staffers for dead on Air Force One earlier this year.
During the Presidents trip to Turkey earlier this year the administration received credible threats to the Presidents life from Iran.
Trump cancelled plans to fly home of the blinged out bribe-jet (the Qatari 747) due to it not having adequate electronic defenses. However it was recently revealed that he didn't fly home on Air Force One either.
The President was seen boarding Air Force One, but behind the scenes it was confirmed that he and key staffers were snuck off the plane onto a catering truck and over to a waiting C-32A (a military version of the Boeing 757).
Trump only took his personal assistant (and possible mistress) and social media manager with him, with Pete Hegseth probably coming along for the ride as it was a military jet and he was aware of the switcheroo.
This meant that he left the press and remaining staff on Air Force One to die in his place. An incredibly callous act worthy of Lord Farquaad.
"Some of you may die, but that's a risk I'm willing to make"
As for Leavitt's actual reason for quitting, it's unclear.
It's highly unlikely that being left for dead on Air Force One was the actual root cause, such a decision was probably made weeks ago.
She's a not only a Trump loyalist, but a true believer and dying for Trump probably isn't a problem.
Being the spokesperson for the Trump admin must be incredibly exhausting, constantly having to spin and lie to the media and keep all the lies straight must require a lot of energy.
I wouldn't be surprised if she's just burned out.
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u/wjdoge Aug 13 '26
She was out on maternity leave at the time.
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u/FizzyBeverage Aug 14 '26
Trump bugged her the entire mat leave and demanded she return early. Numerous calls a day, he's a maniac. It's entirely possible she was aboard, because her boss is a psychopath who demanded she come on the trip.
She lies like anyone breathes, so we'll never know the truth unless a pax manifest shows up. And with this administration? Consider it forged.
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u/TheAsianTroll Aug 14 '26
I genuinely think shes trying to hop ship because she has little confidence that Trump will actually be able to rig the midterms, so shes taking her winnings from thr Iran War market manipulation and jumping with her golden parachute.
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u/cejmp Aug 14 '26
Trump had 4 press secretaries in his first term. Her departure isn't unusual.
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u/ur_a_dumbo Aug 14 '26
She was also not on the Turkey trip, so she wasn’t “left for dead” on AF1
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u/RealCarlPanzram Aug 13 '26
Answer: President Trump and many in his inner circle were in Turkey for some diplomatic talks. While there, the secret service gained intelligence that Iran has learned of his exact location and where he was flying out and was possibly attempting to assassinate him.
To avoid this, they did a bit of a bait and switch where they secretly flew Trump out of the country is a military plane and still flew Air Force One home as if he were in it, in case Iran attempted to strike the plane.
Now to the Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. Shortly after all this happened, she unexpectedly announced that she was resigning. The rumor, while currently unsubstantiated, is that she was put on the Air Force One decoy plane and didn’t know any thing about this threat. So basically, they used her, and other White House staff as bait and without telling her, put her on a plane they thought was getting shot down.
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u/ChiLolla28 Aug 14 '26
Also every other president has always actually briefed the reporters of any threats or situations like this because they trust them and had a better working relationship with all of them. He also left cabinet members like Marco Rubio. And it was also because the stupid gift plane has no defenses.
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u/Odd-Fun-6042 Aug 13 '26
Answer: It would be hilarious if THIS of all things is what finally triggered the underbosses to turn on the catering cart caligula.
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u/SkyPork Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Answer: recently Karoline Leavitt announced she's leaving. Apparently she made that announcement just a day after the "plane swap" thing, when, due to a low-level threat, Trump's security (I assume it was the Secret Service?) covertly pulled him off Air Force One and hid him elsewhere, while his plane took off with the rest of his staff and crew. (EDIT! It was a day after the plane swap was reported. It happened several weeks ago. Which makes the whole thing even stupider.)
So even though Trump thumped his chest and said he was never afraid of the threat in the slightest, and even though the decision wasn't his to make, super-clever memesmiths are saying people are jumping ship because he "left them to die."
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u/eepos96 Aug 13 '26
She made the announcement 1 day after reporters learned of the swap, that took place a month ago.
Leavit leaving now is jist a coincidense.
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u/Toadsrule84 Aug 14 '26
If things were reversed and Biden did this, what would the reaction be?
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u/buhleg Aug 13 '26
Answer: they leave when his policies impact them personally. But stay while his policies cause great harm and suffering to anyone other than themselves.
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u/Melenduwir Aug 14 '26
Answer: There was a threat, considered by some to be credible, that Iran was going to blow up Air Force One.
Trump, and certain members of his administration, were secretly moved to another flight. Other members of his administration and various reporters were allowed to remain on Air Force One and take off, without their being informed of the threat, to create a decoy and draw fire, thereby risking all of their lives.
The rumor is that administration officials, horrified by the final revelation of just how little Trump cares for their literal lives, are now refusing to work for him.
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