President Donald Trump has confirmed that he secretly swapped planes while leaving the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, last month after officials detected a possible threat.
They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “I just have to do what they say.” Officials told News men that the U.S. had detected what they described as a credible Iranian threat to fire a missile at the plane.
According to reports, Trump was seen boarding the older Air Force One plane on July 8 in view of television cameras, before being secretly transferred to a military aircraft with the help of a catering truck positioned on the opposite side of the plane, out of view of journalists.
Trump had flown to the summit in a new Boeing 747-8 jet gifted to him by officials in Qatar, but announced he would instead fly out on the “former Air Force One.”
At the time, he told reporters the switch was for “old time’s sake” and to give U.S. troops in the U.K. a chance to see the new plane, rather than citing any security concern.
The revelation has raised questions about the safety of journalists and staff who remained on the decoy aircraft, unaware the president was not aboard.
Trump defended the operation Tuesday, maintaining that the military jet he ultimately boarded was actually at “greater risk.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung defended the maneuver, saying officials use “every tool at our disposal” to counter threats against the president, whom Trump has described as a top target for Iran amid the ongoing conflict between the two countries.
