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The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) is addressing concerns about President Donald Trump’s top-secret plane switch in order to preserve pool credibility and accurately chronicle the president during future security circumstances.
A bombshell Washington Post report on Monday revealed that Trump secretly switched planes last month amid a credible Iranian threat against the president while reporters and some White House staffers remained on the original plane, believing Trump was still inside. The report sparked backlash from many journalists, suggesting the reporters on the flight were not only duped, but also put at risk.
Fox News anchor and senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, who is the new president of the WHCA, sent an “off-the-record” memo to members on Tuesday after meeting with Trump administration officials to discuss the incident.
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“I want members to know what WHCA has done since the story was published. Immediately after it broke, we spoke with members who were on the flight and heard from a number of managers and pool chairs about the broader concerns raised by the report, including press safety, the ability of the pool to maintain an independent record of the president’s movements, and the integrity and credibility of pooled reporting,” Heinrich wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital.
Heinrich said she had a “candid and productive meeting” with senior administration staffers to convey those concerns directly.
“I emphasized that WHCA recognizes the paramount responsibility of the Secret Service to protect the president and that genuine security threats can require extraordinary measures, including circumstances in which operational security limits what can be shared with reporters in real time,” Heinrich wrote.
“At the same time, I advocated strongly for the importance of maintaining independent press coverage of the president and an accurate historical record of his movements,” she continued. “I also raised the longer-term implications for the credibility of the pool.”
Heinrich wants to ensure that reporters would be able to correct the record once a security concern has passed if there is ever another circumstance in which they “unwittingly” transmit inaccurate or misleading information.
“Otherwise, reporters could be left with reasonable questions about whether information they independently observe and report can be relied upon. That would generate unnecessary uncertainty for both the press corps and the White House,” Heinrich wrote.
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“More broadly, I stressed that undermining confidence in the reliability of pool reports carries risks beyond any single incident,” she added. “In an already conspiratorial information environment, uncertainty about whether independent reporting can be trusted can be exploited by bad actors seeking to sow confusion and undermine confidence in journalism.”
Heinrich said she asked the White House to work with the WHCA on a protocol for “handling extraordinary security circumstances in the future,” while recognizing “the Secret Service’s responsibility to respond to genuine threats while protecting press safety, preserving independent coverage of the president, and providing a mechanism to correct the record after the fact when necessary.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The saga began when the Post reported that Trump secretly boarded a U.S. military aircraft using an airport catering truck as cover to depart the NATO summit in Turkey in July while using an older Air Force One jet as a decoy.
Following U.S. military strikes against Iranian targets earlier in the summer, intelligence officials identified a specific threat from Iran targeting the president’s movements. To counter the threat, U.S. security officials executed a ruse on the Turkish tarmac.
Trump walked up the stairs of the legacy blue-and-white Boeing 747 — the older Air Force One — and waved to news cameras before entering the cabin. Minutes later, Trump and a small team of aides were said to have stepped out of view into an airport catering truck that had been lifted to an exit door on the far side of the plane.
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The truck lowered to ground level and drove across the tarmac to a nearby Air Force C-32A, a modified Boeing 757. Meanwhile, the media and White House staff boarded the older 747, unaware that the Secret Service removed Trump from their flight.
Reporters were then instructed to close their window shades for takeoff, and the jet took off as a decoy, according to the Post. Trump then flew in secrecy aboard the smaller C-32A to RAF Mildenhall in England, landing shortly before the decoy jet.
Last month, Trump attended the annual WHCA Dinner that was rescheduled from its original April 25 date after a crazed gunman stormed the venue.
Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey contributed to this report.
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