Trump’s secret plane switch revives Bill Clinton’s 2000 India-Pakistan decoy flight. It has an al-Qaeda link

In March of 2000, then-President Bill Clinton utilized a decoy aircraft during a trip to Pakistan, a strategy reminiscent of a similar plan employed in the early years of the George W. Bush administration. Clinton traveled from India to Pakistan on March 25, 2000, boarding an unmarked executive jet in Bombay, now Mumbai. Meanwhile, another US-marked plane landed first in Islamabad, creating the illusion that Clinton was aboard a marked aircraft.

This method, known as a "decoy flight," was intended to obscure the true location of the president and deter potential threats, particularly given the high-risk geopolitical climate in Pakistan at the time. Historian Taylor Branch later revealed that intelligence had suggested al-Qaeda operatives were positioned in Islamabad with the intent to assassinate Clinton.