TMZ’s Harvey Levin Questions Why Threatened Air Force One Was Allowed to Take Off with ‘Unsuspecting’ Reporters and Staff Aboard

Screenshot

Security threats which prompted President Donald Trump to secretly ditch Air Force One after the July NATO Summit were “astonishing enough,” but TMZ’s Harvey Levin wants to know why the plane was allowed to fly at all with “unsuspecting” reporters and White House staffers aboard.

Levin took to X to raise the question of why so many people were apparently put in harm’s way while Trump was reportedly snuck out via a catering truck to a waiting military aircraft.

“It’s scary that there was this kind of a threat,” Levin said in the video posted to the social media platform before adding, “but one of the elements of this incredible story has kind of been tempered for some reason. … I’m not sure at all why it’s been tempered.”

Levin said he spoke to people “involved” in the story, which was first reported by The Washington Post.

“I’m told there were more than a dozen members of the White House pool, reporters, along with a handful of White House staff, and military personnel, in addition to these uniformed flight attendants who were on the old Air Force One, and for some reason, they allowed that airplane to take off and fly to London through Turkish airspace,” he said.

“When presumably there was a severe security threat such that Donald Trump could not take that state-of-the-art airplane to London.”

“That’s just unbelievable,” he said, “that if there was this kind of a threat, why would they let that airplane fly, Air Force One, because the idea of putting Trump in the catering truck and then getting him onto another aircraft well, what they were trying to show was that for all intents and purposes people would believe Trump was still on the old Air Force One.

“And if he was still on the old Air Force One and there was a security threat targeting that aircraft, the Iranians would have believed that Trump was on the old Air Force One. That was the whole point and yet he wasn’t. But these unsuspecting reporters, White House staff and military personnel were on that plane, and they flew,” he added.

“The idea that these unsuspecting reporters and others, White House staff, just didn’t know — is pretty remarkable,” he said.

“The big thing that they just have not answered is: why would you allow the old Air Force One to take off if there was that kind of imminent danger?” he asked.

Watch the clip above.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!