President Trump was secretly whisked off Air Force One in an airport catering truck last month and departed Turkey on a separate military flight in response to a threat from Iran, according to a report.
The secret mission, reported by the Washington Post on Monday, left journalists and even White House staff believing that they were on the same plane as the president when they departed the annual NATO Summit in Ankara on July 8.
But in reality they served as a decoy while Trump traveled in a smaller, Air Force C-32A.
The elaborate ruse saw Trump publicly board an older model of Air Force One before being smuggled out in a catering truck that had been lifted up to a door on the opposite side of the entrance to the presidential plane.
Trump was accompanied by “several aides” inside the container, which was lowered onto a truck on the tarmac and driven to the nearby Air Force C-32A plane, where the vessel was once again elevated up to a door, apparently allowing Trump and his aides to surreptitiously board the alternate plane.
Like the older model presidential plane, the C-32A was also blue-and-white and emblazoned with the words “United States of America,” according to the Washington Post.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth was on the secret flight with Trump but boarded separately, using external stairs in an attempt “to make the flight appear typical,” a US official told the outlet.
After departing Ankara, the C-32A carrying Trump landed in Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United Kingdom. The plane arrived about 9 minutes before reporters and White House staff aboard Air Force One landed at the same base.
Television cameras and media reports note Trump descended the external stairs from Air Force One about 25 minutes after the plane landed. It’s unclear how the president moved from the C-32A to the other plane.
At Mildenhall, Trump, White House staff and reporters boarded the $400 million Qatari-gifted jet that the president flew into Turkey on.
At the time, speculation swirled as to why the older Air Force One was being used to depart Turkey rather than the newer and more luxurious plane.
The White House and Trump denied that the switcheroo was related to a threat from Iran or security concerns with the new plane, which Trump is using as a temporary Air Force One while Boeing finishes work on permanent replacement planes.
Once aboard the Qatari-gifted jet, Trump went to the back of the plane and spoke with reporters for several minutes without letting on that he was not on the plane with them for the first-leg of the flight.
The secret operation was set in motion due to a “credible” Iranian threat against Trump’s life, a US official told the Washington Post. The official did not elaborate on the exact nature of the threat.
Several outlets reported last month that intelligence officials flagged a specific threat against the president, triggering the plane switch.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel tipped the US off about a potential Iranian assassination plot targeting Trump.
The White House on Monday night did not deny the report of Trump’s secret flight out of Turkey.
When reached for comment about the report, White House communications director Steven Cheung touted the safety of the Qatari-gifted jet.
“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” Cheung said in a statement. “As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats.”
The White House also pointed to a statement from the Air Force touting the so-called “palace in the sky” plane.
“The aircraft is safe, secure and equipped with the most advanced technologies necessary to meet the requirements of the presidential mission,” read the statement. “Those requirements were carefully crafted to prioritize mission over aesthetics, leaving much of the previous head of state interior layout minimally changed.
“No risk was taken in security, safety or mission communications, but the collective team made trades on some of the less commonly used mission sets that Boeing must deliver to support the next 40 years.”
