Did Trump really need to orchestrate the secret plane swap?

This week, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss the security calculations behind Trump’s plane switch operation; the White House’s attempts to circumvent Supreme Court rulings in its continued obsession with ‘birth tourism’; and whether ‘Burritogate’ reveals the extent of today’s economic anxiety or that young Americans simply aren’t learning to cook anymore. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Juliette Kayyem for Early Warning (Substack): When Air Force One Became the Decoy Dan Lamothe, John Hudson, Andrew Ba Tran and Joyce Sohyun Lee for The Washington Post: Contradicting public statements, Trump took secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat Phillip Wang for Time: Former Secret Service Agents: Trump’s Secret Plane Swap Unusual, Not Unprecedented Eric Schmitt, Maggie Haberman, Aric Toler, Jamie Leventhal, Simon Ducroquet and Yuliya Parshina-Kottas for The New York Times: A Catering Truck and a Decoy Plane: How Trump’s Great Escape Unfolded Marc Caputo for Axios: Trump targets birth tourism and citizenship in new executive orders Zane Irwin and Scott Simon for NPR: Kansas revokes driver’s licenses of hundreds of trans people, prompted by new law Megan Brenan for Gallup: U.S. Economic Confidence Improves in July Peter Baker for The New York Times: Insults, Expletives and Fat-Shaming: Vance Trolls Critics on the Right and Left Karol Markowicz for The New York Post (Opinion): How ‘burritogate’ roiled the right — exposing a dangerous disconnect on affordability Here are this week’s chatters: Emily: Eli Sabin won the Democratic nomination for the Connecticut state house of Representatives on Tuesday, following a hard-fought campaign. Juliette: This summer I dropped Yesteryear, Theft and All Fours: if you don’t get into a book, don’t feel like you need to finish it! David: London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe Listener chatter from Peter Brown in West Chester, Pennsylvania: Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway; podcast Stuff Matters with Ed Conway For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, Emily, David, and guest host Juliette Kayyem discuss whether the benefits of the Flock surveillance network are worth its tradeoffs. Flock cameras help police solve crimes, but cases of officers abusing their access to the technology for stalking raise concerns about privacy violations. In the latest Gabfest Reads, John Dickerson interviews Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan about their new book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump. Drawing on extensive reporting from inside the White House, they explore how Trump’s second term differs radically from his first, from his decision-making process to the people surrounding him and his relationship with power, money, and the presidency itself. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jay Cockburn Research by Nora Moses You can find the full Political Gabfest show pages here.