Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Tuesday demanded the Trump administration brief lawmakers on the Secret Service’s recent move to fly President Trump back from the NATO summit in Turkey last month using a decoy plane.
“The Senate should be immediately briefed on the Iranian threats against the President, the extraordinary measures taken to get him out of Turkey, any risks posed to U.S. personnel, and any threat to the homeland,” Schumer said in a statement shared on the social platform X.
Trump left Ankara on the alternate aircraft because of a potential assassination threat from Iran, The Washington Post first reported Monday. After initially boarding the old Air Force One for the trip from Turkey to the U.K., the president secretly left the aircraft, hopped in a catering truck and boarded a smaller Air Force C-32A plane.
The press pool traveling with Trump believed him to be on the same plane it was on and was unaware of his movements.
Schumer called the ploy “unacceptable” and blasted the administration for keeping Congress “in the dark.”
The New York Democrat added, “Trump has put America’s sons and daughters in harm’s way by getting into an unnecessary and reckless war, and this administration has repeatedly refused to provide Congress and the public with the transparency they deserve.”
Schumer also said Congress should “reassert its constitutional authority” and bring the Iran war “to an end.” The conflict is in its sixth month, with the president and Iranian officials trading barbs amid fraught negotiations.
Both chambers have, with bipartisan support, passed war powers resolutions instructing the president to wind down the war. Trump and administration officials, though, have argued the War Powers Act is unconstitutional.
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