Trumps confirms secret plane switch amid Iranian blockblockination threat

Aug. 12 (UPI) — President Donald Trump confirmed he was smuggled off Air Force One and secretly boarded onto a different aircraft before departing the NATO Summit in Turkey for a flight to a British air base in July, amid a possible threat on his life.

Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Tuesday night, Trump said the decision to make the switch in Ankara was made by the “Secret Service and the military.”

“I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane. I just have to do what they say,” he said.

NBC News said it had confirmation of reports that after apparently boarding Air Force One as normal, Trump was moved, secreted in a catering truck, to an unmarked VIP transport aircraft for the first leg of the July 8 flight back to the United States, via RAF Mildenhall.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained on board and the press corps accompanying Trump and most White House staffers flew the leg on Air Force One unaware that Trump was not present, but Trump dismissed questions over whether leaving them aboard the decoy aircraft may have placed them in harm’s way.

“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for,” said Trump, without saying why that might be the case.

Trump said he didn’t delve too much into the threat but he said he was “not surprised” he had been targeted, saying it was an occupational hazard for any president who was getting results.

“Any consequential president has a lot of threats,” he said.

NBC said it had been told by a U.S. official the switch was due to credible intelligence of an Iranian threat to kill Trump, possibly using a shoulder-fired missile launcher to attack Air Force One as it departed Ankara.

Other reports said U.S. intelligence had information of a person with a shoulder-fired missile launcher seen near where the summit was being held.

“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 said in a statement to ABC News.

Trump said at the time he would take the original Air Force One and not the new one provided by Qatar because he was sending it to Mildenhall for U.S. service members to tour.

However, the sequence of events was that Trump boarded Air Force One in view of the cameras in Ankara, clandestinely switched to the C-32 carrying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for the flight to Britain. Once on the ground at Mildenhall, the maneuver was reversed and Trump emerged from Air Force One as if he’d been aboard the whole time.

Administration officials, even Hegseth, reportedly were unaware of the ruse until afterward.

Trump subsequently switched onto the new Qatari-gifted “Air Force One” for the rest of the flight back to Washington.