Air Force One, a catering truck and a secondary military plane were all part of an elaborate \u201cdeception operation\u201d to safeguard the commander-in-chief when he departed last month\u2019s Nato summit in Ankara<\/a>, The Washington Post has revealed. <\/a><\/p>\n Several White House staffers and journalists remained on Air Force One as unwitting decoys to the threat while Trump was quietly smuggled off the plane and boarded onto a different flight, according to the Post.<\/p>\n The newspaper based its account on reviewed documentation, a U.S. official aware of the operation and another individual familiar with the president\u2019s travel arrangements. <\/p>\n Trump had originally arrived in Turkey on a newly retrofitted red, white and navy blue jet presented as a gift from Qatar<\/a>. Prior to leaving, however, he announced he would complete the first leg of his journey home on an older, baby-blue Air Force One aircraft<\/a>. <\/p>\n At the time, the president explained that the luxury aircraft was departing Ankara early so that military personnel stationed in eastern England could view the updated Air Force One.<\/p>\n Trump was filmed by television crews boarding the older jumbo jet in Ankara before it set off for the Mildenhall Royal Air Force base in Suffolk.<\/p>\n But shortly after stepping onto the legacy Air Force One, he was transferred to a smaller Air Force C-32A plane. He was moved using a catering truck usually employed for loading inflight meals, before flying to Mildenhall in the smaller aircraft.<\/p>\n The White House did not directly address enquiries about the clandestine operation to transfer Trump onto a third plane or the scheme designed to make it look as though he remained aboard the baby-blue Air Force One bound for Mildenhall. <\/p>\n \u201cAs 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,\u201d White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement.<\/p>\n The Secret Service declined to comment while the Air Force, which operates the executive transport fleet, directed enquiries to the White House.<\/p>\n During Trump\u2019s stay in Turkey, the U.S. military carried out significant strikes inside Iran following attacks on commercial shipping in the surrounding region.<\/p>\n Intelligence officials had previously warned of a possible attack targeting the president or his aircraft, as reported last month by The New York Times and CBS News. Those concerns prompted heightened security measures and the decision not to fly the newly gifted Qatari jet for the initial leg of Trump\u2019s return from Ankara.<\/p>\n The switch raised doubts concerning the safety of the new plane, which the president later noted would undergo further security enhancements.<\/p>\n On Monday, Cheung insisted that the Qatari plane remained \u201ca state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.\u201d<\/p>\n The revelations regarding Trump\u2019s covert transfer to a third plane highlight the severity with which U.S. security officials view potential threats against him amid conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n Paul Eckloff, a former Secret Service agent, remarked that such a tactic could indicate specific intelligence or extreme caution amid regional instability involving conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cI would not say unprecedented, but it is an unusual occurrence,\u201d Eckloff said.<\/p>\n To leave the aircraft unnoticed, Trump and a small group of aides boarded the hydraulic catering vehicle, which had been raised to a door on the far side of Air Force One, according to the Post.<\/p>\n The traveling press corps, unaware of the manoeuvre, was asked to pull down its window blinds prior to departure.<\/p>\n Upon landing at Mildenhall, photographers captured Trump disembarking the primary presidential plane, indicating he had re-boarded Air Force One away from the reporters.<\/p>\n Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal demanded a congressional inquiry into the matter. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is unprecedented and it\u2019s surreal,\u201d he stated on CNN Monday, describing the event as \u201cdownright scary.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the short stop at the British airbase, Trump boarded the newly gifted Air Force One jet to complete his journey to Washington.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters on board, Trump was asked directly whether there were credible Iranian threats against Air Force One. <\/p>\n \u201cWell, I have a threat all the time. I\u2019m number one on their list before you,\u201d he replied. <\/p>\n He then told the accompanying press: \u201cBut if I go, you go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5781,13360,26566,68109,32442,394,5084,26810,34,12288,3300,15552,6797,25953,396,201,81,5485,35115,67643,811,1332,256,2710],"class_list":["post-244849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-air-force-one","tag-color-image","tag-donald-trump-us-president","tag-first-occurrence","tag-flying","tag-government","tag-horizontal","tag-incidental-people","tag-iran","tag-joint-base-andrews","tag-journalist","tag-leaving","tag-military-base","tag-one-person","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-talking","tag-three-quarter-length","tag-uk","tag-us-president","tag-usa","tag-washington-dc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117077107575453414","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Trump-1ac31e95.jpeg\")
The \u2018deception operation\u2019 to remove President Trump was implemented after a threat against his life was made by Iran (AP)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Trump-plane-0aabef4f.jpeg\")
The catering truck used to transport President Trump to the smaller plane in which he secretly left Turkey is seen parked next to the legacy Air Force One at Ankara Esenboga Airport on July 8 (AP)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2285302083...jpeg\")
The president spoke to the press back on board Air Force One at RAF Mildenhall in eastern England before completing the final leg of the return journey to Washington (Getty)<\/p>\n![\"Trump](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2285207438.jpeg\")
Trump speaking at the Nato summit in Ankara (Getty)<\/p>\n