President Trump confirmed on Tuesday that he secretly switched planes while traveling back from the NATO summit in Turkey in early July, saying that a security threat prompted the covert operation.
“I guess there was a threat out there,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews after returning from the Patriot Games in Ohio. “I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats. I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety but they wanted me to do it. So I do it.”
The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence had picked up a specific threat of a surface-to-air missile attack on Air Force One by Iran.
According to the Times, “someone in the vicinity of the NATO summit had been spotted with a shoulder-fired missile.” That led U.S. officials to order the elaborate plane switch, which was carried out on the tarmac in Ankara on July 8.
President Trump speaks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Aug. 11.
(Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)
Asked why Air Force One was considered too dangerous for him to fly but not too dangerous for the press, Trump claimed the opposite was true.
“The plane that I was on was at greater risk,” Trump said. “Because that would be the plane that I think that they would be more likely to go for.”
He added: “Any consequential president has a lot of threats. Non-consequential presidents don’t get threatened. And I think that I may be the most consequential president.”
How the secret plane swap unfolded
A catering truck is parked next to Air Force One in Ankara, Turkey,, on July 8.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
At the NATO summit, Trump announced on social media that he would be leaving Turkey on an older version of Air Force One, rather than the new Qatari-donated 747 that he had flown in on, en route to Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United Kingdom.
At the airport, the president boarded Air Force One in full view of television cameras. Then, according to the Washington Post, Trump was secretly shuttled to a smaller military plane, an Air Force C-32A, in a catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies. Trump flew to Britain separately from some White House staff members and the traveling press corps, who believed they were on the same flight as the president.
After arriving in Britain, Trump was secretly moved back to the older version of Air Force One, and disembarked in view of reporters, as if he had been on board all along.
President Trump steps off Air Force One at Mildenhall Air Force Base in England on July 8.
(Win McNamee via Getty Images)
According to the Post, Trump secretly switched planes with some of his top aides — including White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, director of Oval Office operation Walt Nauta and executive assistant Natalie Harp — but not Cabinet officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who remained on Air Force One.
The journalists on board Air Force One were told by White House staff to keep their window shades down. When they asked Trump later in the day about the unusual request, he said it was “because you’re probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleaze bags that we have to deal with.”
“If they asked you to close your windows they probably feel that way,” Trump said. “They didn’t ask me to close mine, but if they did, I would have done it.”
Asked by a reporter whether he was aware of any credible threat to Air Force One, the president gave a cryptic answer: “I’m No. 1 on their list, before you. But if I go, you go.”
Democrats demand a briefing
People line up to board Air Force One in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8.
(REUTERS / REUTERS)
Trump is not the first president to have traveled in secret for security. But in previous cases, members of the press corps, as well as Congress, were briefed by the White House beforehand.
Several top Democrats on Capitol Hill are now calling on the White House for an immediate briefing on the clandestine maneuver.
“The Senate should be immediately briefed on the Iranian threats against the President, the extraordinary measures taken to get him out of Turkey, any risks posed to U.S. personnel, and any threat to the homeland,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a post on X. “It is unacceptable that Congress was kept in the dark and instead learned about this serious threat through press reports.”
Appearing on CNN, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut and ranking member of the Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations, called reports of the clandestine plane switch “surreal” and “downright scary” while pressing for answers on potential security risks to all passengers on board.
“The Secret Service should be credited with an evasive maneuver or, as they call it, a deceptive operation, to keep the president safe,” Blumenthal said. “But remember that there continued to be reporters and staff and military on the legacy Air Force One, which then flew without the president, and I’d like to know what was done to keep them safe.”