The Washington Post, in a four-byline report Monday (email-gated “gift” link; Apple News Plus link):

The administration has claimed that Trump departed Turkey on July 8 on the former Air Force One. Trump announced on social media that he would use the “former Air Force One” rather than the plane that flew him there, a newer Boeing 747–8 gifted to the United States by Qatar. The security of the Qatar-provided aircraft has been called into question, and Trump said last month after the trip that it would undergo additional upgrades.

In Ankara, Trump boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras. He was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane — an Air Force C-32A — via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight, according to the U.S. official and corroborating material reviewed by The Post. That made Air Force One a “decoy” with media and some White House staff aboard, the official said.

I actually thought this was satire when I first saw The New York Times subhed in my RSS feed (“President Trump hid in an airport catering container and was taken to a military jet for a secret flight out of country after the NATO summit last month”).

It turned out not to be satire, but an elaborate subterfuge that knowingly left reporters and government officials in a potentially dangerous situation. From that Times report:

Reporters on the older plane were not told that Mr. Trump had not flown with them from Turkey to an air base in Britain, making them unwitting participants in the ruse and leaving them, along with some White House staff members, to serve as unknowing decoys.

I can understand the need to occasionally mislead the public about the whereabouts of the president, but doing so by deceiving the very people who are unknowingly left in harm’s way—effectively draping civilians in military insignia—is some fucked-up Joker-level shit.