ADVERTISEMENT‘They Wanted Me To Go On A Different Flight’“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter. Unprecedented Secrecy: ExpertsPresidents often take secret trips — but not like this. Graff said the presence of the White House press corps is as much about protecting “the presidency and democracy” as it is about covering the story. “This shows that the White House just fundamentally doesn’t understand how important that role is,” he said. However, the White House did not suggest that the president was somewhere he was not — unlike when Trump was whisked out of Turkey.