From Lebanon, history almost causes a sense of self-esteem. Donald Trump was reportedly discreetly exfiled from Turkey in a catering truck after an Iranian threat deemed serious by the US services. To join another aircraft without being spotted, the President of the United States temporarily abandoned Air Force One, the armored limousines and the protocol to borrow the vehicle normally charged with bringing the meal trays.
In Lebanon, it’s hard not to think of Carlos Ghosn. The former boss of Renault-Nissan had left Japan in late 2019 hidden in a large box for the transport of audio equipment, before joining Beirut. Six years later Donald Trump chose — or rather his bodyguards choose for him — the catering truck. At this pace, it may be necessary to completely review the definition of the VIP lounge: after the box of equipment and the truck of sandwiches, the leather armchair and the glass of champagne begin to make terribly old diet.
The new doctrine of prestige travel therefore seems quite simple. The more important you are, the less you have to look like someone important. The ordinary passenger takes priority. The billionaire takes the cash. The president of the United States goes up with the meal trays.
Explorez la carte en direct des evenements et points de situation.
This is called progress.
From Carlos Ghosn to Donald Trump, freight increases in range
Carlos Ghosn had placed the bar very high. In December 2019, while under house arrest in Japan, the former car manager had managed to leave the country illegally. He had reached an airport and then was hidden in a large box of audio equipment, large enough to contain a man and sufficiently banal to accompany a team allegedly linked to a show.
The body was then loaded into a private jet. Head for Turkey, then Beirut.
At the time, history seemed difficult to overcome. A former Renault and Nissan boss leaving Japan as a concert equipment already had all the ingredients of a Netflix production for which no one would have dared to propose the scenario for fear that it would be considered too implausible.
Donald Trump has just introduced a presidential variant.
No cash this time. The American president enjoys a superior standing: an entire truck.
However, the principle remains remarkably close. When a passenger is so famous that everyone is watching his movements, the solution seems to be to turn him into a commodity.
Ghosn was traveling with audio equipment.
Trump with the catering.
We are now waiting to know which Head of State will inaugurate the baggage compartment.
Air Force One? Much too bright
Donald Trump has an advantage that Carlos Ghosn did not have: the United States makes Air Force One available to him.
The presidential apparatus is probably one of the most recognizable aircraft in the world. It has secure communications, protective equipment and exceptional logistics. His arrival is enough to report several kilometers that the American president is probably in the vicinity.
That is precisely the problem.
When US services considered that an Iranian threat was weighing on Trump after his travel to Turkey, they sought to prevent any adversaries from determining which aircraft he was travelling in.
The president therefore boarded the presidential aircraft publicly, as planned. Then he came out quietly.
It is at this point that catering enters diplomatic history.
A vehicle normally used to load meals in planes allowed Trump to move without attracting attention. The truck drove to another American military aircraft, a C-32A, military version of the Boeing 757.
Air Force One then continued with journalists and collaborators on board.
But without Trump.
For outside observers, everything was perfect. The presidential plane was there. The reporters were there. The collaborators were there. Only a relatively secondary detail was missing: the president.
The VIP room is dead, live the truck
History forces us to reconsider several decades of airport luxury design.
Until now, the important traveller had to be recognizable by a few simple signs: black car, escort, private entrance, reserved lounge, costume staff and direct access to the aircraft.
Strategic error.
All this indicates exactly where the VIP is.
The real contemporary luxury is apparently not to look like a VIP.
Carlos Ghosn had understood first and foremost: a caisse has a decisive advantage over an honor salon. Nobody asks him for his passport.
American services have just improved the concept. Why travel in the car when you can take the truck directly?
The future VIP lounge at Beirut airport could be inspired by this. Three categories would suffice.
Business class: living room with armchairs.
First class: direct transfer to the tarmac.
Ultra VIP: « Sir, do you prefer the drink truck or the luggage truck? »
For heads of state under immediate threat, catering would naturally be included.
Seen from Beirut, the method has already proved its worth
The parallel obviously has its limits. Carlos Ghosn sought to escape Japanese justice. Donald Trump, according to reports published in the United States, tried to escape a possible assassination attempt.
The two situations are therefore neither the same nature nor the same gravity.
But the method offers this deliciously absurd kinship: in both cases, extreme celebrity makes ordinary means of transport unusable.
Ghosn could not simply run for passport control with his ticket to Beirut.
Trump could not necessarily use the Boeing that the entire planet identifies as the aircraft of the President of the United States.
So one disappeared in a car.
The other in a truck.
Modern security may have just rediscovered a very old truth: to hide someone, it is sometimes better to have a common object than an extraordinarily sophisticated device.
The best protected truck in the world
The scene deserves to be imagined.
Somewhere on a Turkish tarmac, a catering truck is heading for a plane. Nothing extraordinary. Outside, probably the same look as any vehicle loaded with drinks, meal trays and carts.
Inside: Donald Trump.
We don’t know if anyone thought about leaving the peanuts.
The contrast is all the more tasty as Trump built much of his public image around the power demonstration. Gold towers, personal Boeings, limousines, processions, large gatherings: the discretion never constituted the most immediately identifiable element of the Trump brand.
To ensure his safety, he had to do exactly the opposite.
For a few minutes, the most recognizable man in world politics had to become less interesting than a basket of drinks.
And it worked.
Geopolitics of the meal tray
Behind the comic scene, the threat was obviously taken seriously.
The US authorities have been monitoring the risk of Iranian reprisals against Donald Trump and several former officials of his administration for several years. Tehran had promised to avenge the death of Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Al-Quds force, killed in an American strike in Baghdad in January 2020 on Trump’s orders.
During the visit to Turkey, the presidential protection authorities therefore considered that the information available justified exceptional measures.
The device had a logic: convincing a potential opponent that Trump was in Air Force One while travelling in another aircraft.
To build the decoy, everything had to look normal. Journalists on board the presidential plane themselves contributed to the illusion. Employees continued the journey. The aircraft followed its route.
Meanwhile, Trump was traveling elsewhere.
For once, then, following Air Force One was probably the best way not to follow the US President.
Billions of US defense and truck engineering
The episode also has something reassuring for taxpayers.
The United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars annually on defence. They have satellites, stealth planes, anti-missile systems, some of the most sophisticated intelligence assets in the world and a presidential fleet designed to allow the head of state to continue to govern in extreme circumstances.
And despite all this technology, someone had the great idea to say:
« Let’s take the catering truck. »
It was probably the right decision.
Military sophistication is not always about using the most expensive equipment. It consists of choosing what the adversary will not look at.
A presidential Boeing attracts attention.
A presidential limo attracts attention.
A presidential procession attracts great attention.
A truck supposedly carrying dinner much less.
The least prestigious vehicle at the airport has thus become, for a few minutes, probably NATO’s most important vehicle.
Carlos Ghosn was just a few years ahead
Seen from Lebanon, Carlos must be given back what belongs to Carlos.
In 2019, many viewed his escape as an almost cinematic extravagance. The former car boss hidden in a caisse seemed to have invented an entirely new category of international travel.
In hindsight, perhaps he was just a precursor.
He had understood before the Secret Service that the real first class is not to appear on the passenger list.
The principle is now being validated at the highest level.
Ghosn: box of audio equipment.
Trump: Catering truck.
The next logical step belongs to the airlines.
We already imagine the new loyalty cards:
Economy. Business. Unseen.
The last category does not give access to the living room.
It gives access to the warehouse.
Trump says he wasn’t afraid
Donald Trump confirmed that he followed the recommendations of his security officials. He also insisted that he had not been afraid.
Accuracy was probably inevitable.
A president who has just been transported secretly in a truck to avoid a possible assassination attempt has two communication options: to acknowledge that the situation was worrying or to explain that everything was going perfectly well and that he had simply decided, that day, to discover the jobs of the airport.
Trump chose the second philosophy.
There is no necessary contradiction. The role of the Secret Service is precisely to take threats seriously so that the President does not decide on the acceptable level of risk himself.
When your security professionals tell you to get in the truck, even a U.S. president may consider the debate to be over.
Especially if the truck leaves before Air Force One.
Beirut can prepare the next concept
Beirut International Airport could finally find in this whole story a great business idea.
Lebanon already knows the previous Ghosn. He can now observe the previous Trump.
The country therefore has unique historical expertise in this new segment of the high-end journey: the passenger that no one should see.
Infrastructure needs to be created.
A traditional VIP lounge for ministers.
A private terminal for billionaires.
And, deep down, behind the kitchens, the real space reserved for really important people.
No champagne.
No leather chair.
No red carpets.
« Your vehicle is ready, Mr. President. »
Carlos Ghosn chose the audio equipment. Donald Trump was entitled to the catering. At this rate, the real external sign of power will soon be no longer to own its private aircraft.
It will be able to travel without ever getting in.
