“THAT SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME”: Clinton Nuclear Football Carrier Calls Trump’s Air Force One Decoy “BRILLIANT” — Warns Insider Was “Highly Placed” and Should be Prosecuted to the Fullest

Air Force One at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Arizona. (Credit: Gage Skidmore)

A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who once carried the nuclear “football” for President Bill Clinton is praising President Donald Trump’s extraordinary Air Force One decoy operation in Ankara as “brilliant,” while sounding the alarm that the leak exposing exactly how it was done came from someone “highly placed” inside the process and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Retired Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson told Fox News that the Trump security team’s Air Force One decoy maneuver in Ankara was masterfully executed.

“It was brilliant,” Patterson said. “I wish I had been a part of it. That’s how well done it was.”

But the operation itself is not what has Patterson worried. The leak is.

“There’s only a few people who actually know exactly what’s going down, and that’s by design,” Patterson said. “So if somebody leaked it, it was somebody involved in the process… and that scares the hell out of me.”

“I hope that they prosecute this to the fullest,” he added. “Whoever leaked that, in my opinion, and having been involved in this, was highly placed in that process.”

Washington Post hacks Dan Lamothe, John Hudson, Andrew Ba Tran, and Joyce Sohyun Lee published an article on Monday, August 9th, tipping off America’s enemies on the secret travel maneuvers used to keep President Donald Trump safe following a credible assassination threat by Iran.

Dan, John, Andrew, and Joyce were very proud of their work exposing the president’s escape route in case of an emergency.

Trump publicly boarded the familiar blue-and-white legacy Air Force One in full view of cameras after the NATO summit in Ankara. Minutes later, he and a small group of aides exited through a door on the opposite side of the aircraft into an elevated airport catering truck. The truck then delivered them to a nearby Air Force C-32A (a modified Boeing 757). Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boarded the same aircraft separately.

The older Air Force One then took off as a decoy carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, other senior aides, and the White House press pool, many of whom had no idea the president was not on board. Window shades were ordered closed. The actual presidential flight used a nondescript call sign and flew under the radar to RAF Mildenhall in Britain.

The elaborate ruse was driven by U.S. intelligence of a specific, credible Iranian threat involving a surface-to-air or shoulder-fired missile. Iranian operatives reportedly knew the exact floor of the building where Trump was staying in Ankara. Someone near the NATO summit had even been spotted with a shoulder-fired missile.

Patterson, who served as Clinton’s senior military aide and nuclear football carrier, confirmed these kinds of deceptions are standard practice.

He described a nearly identical catering-truck transfer used with Clinton when the former president could not use the front stairs, as well as the 1997 Christmas Eve surprise visit to U.S. troops in Bosnia that was kept completely secret from the press.

“We use decoys all the time,” Patterson explained. “We use decoy in the motorcade routes… We do the same thing with airplanes, especially in international trips. There’s always two Air Force Ones that go. Obviously, one’s a decoy… We’ve been doing it for years. It works.”

Exposing the methods, he warned, is “incredibly dangerous.” It endangers the president, Secret Service agents, military aides, Air Force and Army personnel on alert, and even the press corps that travels with the commander in chief.

If the playbook becomes public knowledge, future high-risk trips could become impossible and the entire presidential security apparatus might need overhauling.

The highly placed leaker who decided to expose the exact methods used to protect President Trump from Iranian missiles should face the full force of the law. National security is not a game for political score-settling or media access.

The post “THAT SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME”: Clinton Nuclear Football Carrier Calls Trump’s Air Force One Decoy “BRILLIANT” — Warns Insider Was “Highly Placed” and Should be Prosecuted to the Fullest appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.