Lawfare Analyst Calls Trump's Decoy Plane Operation a 'Clown Show' Amid DOJ Subpoenas for New York Times Reporters
Key Takeaways
- •Michael Feinberg of Lawfare characterized the current U.S. national security apparatus as a "clown show" during an appearance on the MS NOW panel.
- •The Justice Department issued subpoenas to New York Times reporters following leaks about security breaches on a Boeing 747-8 aircraft gifted to the U.S. government by Qatar.
- •Feinberg argued that available evidence indicates the subpoenas were issued because the White House was embarrassed by the New York Times reporting rather than for legitimate national security reasons.
- •Trump reportedly called FBI Director Kash Patel back to the White House to push through the issuance of the subpoenas.
- •Feinberg acknowledged that using a decoy flight departing from Turkey was likely justified but criticized Trump's conduct and said the president lacks the maturity and sobriety of his predecessors.
Michael Feinberg of Lawfare, a publication affiliated with the Brookings Institution that focuses on national security and legal analysis, sharply criticized President Donald Trump's use of a decoy plane, describing the broader national security apparatus under the current administration as a "clown show" during an appearance on the MS NOW panel.
The discussion centered on the Justice Department's issuance of subpoenas to New York Times reporters following leaks about security breaches on the aircraft gifted to the U.S. government by Qatar. The Qatar-donated Boeing 747-8 has been a point of contention since its acceptance was announced, drawing scrutiny over potential counterintelligence vulnerabilities. The disclosure that Trump employed a decoy plane during a flight departing from Turkey added a new dimension to the controversy.
"It complicates every discussion we've had about the subpoenas since we first learned they were issued," Feinberg said, adding, "the timing does look suspicious."
Feinberg acknowledged that a legitimate rationale could exist for deploying subpoenas in cases involving genuine national security breaches. "If there was a legitimate loss of national security information, it would seem that there is legitimate reason, at some point, to issue subpoenas in an investigation to find out how it was released," he noted.
However, he argued that the available evidence pointed in a different direction. "But as far as we know, these subpoenas were still issued just because the White House got embarrassed at the New York Times reporting," Feinberg said, noting that Trump called FBI Director Kash Patel back to the White House on a whim to get this done.
"The whole national security apparatus of the United States right now is, frankly, a clown show," Feinberg concluded. "And I think looking for rational explanations for why any given step is taken is a little bit of a fool's errand."
On the question of whether the decoy flight itself was justified, Feinberg offered a measured assessment. He said that in this case, it probably did make sense for Trump to use a decoy flight out of Turkey, "but that doesn't mean I'm going to defend the ham-fisted way in which Trump got in the press pool and started just mouthing off in the narcissistic way he normally does about how he's the center of the universe. And anything that happens to him happens to everybody."
"There's just an element of maturity and sobriety that every other president in the history of the United States has had that he lacks," Feinberg added. "If I was a reporter in his press pool, I wouldn't be giving any credence to a single word that comes out of his mouth."
