A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who once carried the nuclear "football" for President Bill Clinton has voiced serious concerns about the public exposure of presidential security tactics, particularly those employed to protect former President Donald Trump during his departure from Ankara, Turkey. Robert "Buzz" Patterson stated that while the "shell game" involving Air Force One was "brilliant," the subsequent leaks of operational details are "incredibly dangerous."
Patterson, who served as Clinton's senior military aide for two years, explained that deception and decoy aircraft are long-standing tools used to safeguard the commander in chief. He characterized the tactic used for Trump's departure – where the president publicly boarded the familiar presidential 747 before being secretly transferred to a smaller C-32A while the larger aircraft departed as a decoy – as a well-executed operation. However, he expressed alarm that details of such vital national security procedures are becoming public.
"Whoever leaked that, in my opinion, and having been involved in this, was highly placed in that process," Patterson told Fox News Digital. "There’s only a few people who actually know exactly what’s going down, and that’s by design. So if somebody leaked it, it was somebody involved in the process, and that scares the hell out of me."
During Trump's July 8 departure, the legacy presidential 747 served as a decoy while Trump traveled separately. A senior Trump administration official confirmed to Fox News that U.S. fighter jets escorted the decoy aircraft to the United Kingdom, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were aboard with the press corps, who were instructed to keep their window shades closed.
Patterson confirmed that fighter jet escorts are standard procedure in high-threat environments. "We damn sure always do when we’re going to a theater of high threat," he said. "We did it with President Clinton in ’97. And we did it with Trump just a couple weeks ago, and we’ll do it with whoever the next president is."
He emphasized that the use of decoys extends beyond aircraft, including motorcade routes and, historically, aircraft swaps under bridges. "We use decoys all the time," Patterson stated. "You’ll sometimes see the two beasts will switch out under bridges and overpasses. 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, and it’s also a spare for spare parts in case something happens to the primary."
This practice, he argued, is crucial for ensuring the continuity of the presidency, not just the protection of an individual president. "These programs exist to protect no matter who the president is and the team around him."
Patterson also revealed that the use of an airport catering vehicle for clandestine movement was something he had witnessed during the Clinton administration. "As far as I know, President Clinton was the first one to do it," he said, describing an instance where a catering truck was used to board Clinton onto an aircraft discreetly due to an inability to use the front stairs. He noted that such operations, like a surprise visit to Bosnia on Christmas Eve in 1997, were conducted without public knowledge and without complaint from the press.
Exposing these operational details, Patterson warned, could severely compromise future presidential travel. "If we were to expose everything, we would have to overhaul the entire security apparatus of the United States of America," he said, cautioning that such a move could place "the presidency and the Cabinet members in incredible danger." He believes that if these tactics become predictable, it could prevent future presidents from making necessary surprise visits to troops or entering high-threat regions. "That’s correct," he agreed when asked if overexposing such programs could effectively prevent future high-risk overseas trips. "We just need to leave them alone."