The President of the United States, Donald Trump, allegedly secretly left Turkey last July aboard a military plane different from the Air Force One that was publicly reported he would use, in a security operation triggered by a threat considered credible against his life linked to Iran.
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The information was revealed this Monday by The Washington Post and later corroborated by The New York Times, media outlets that cited U.S. officials and background related to the operation.
According to reports, the operation even involved temporarily hiding the president inside a catering cart usually used at airports to transport food and supplies to planes.
The episode occurred while Trump was in Ankara, Turkey, participating in a NATO summit alongside other international leaders. In that context, the Republican leader publicly boarded the former Air Force One, a light blue Boeing 747, in front of television cameras.
However, according to the background published by The Washington Post, Trump was allegedly transferred a few minutes later from that plane to a smaller aircraft, a U.S. Air Force C-32A, using a catering cart to keep his departure hidden.
The White House had previously reported that Trump had left Turkey on July 8 aboard the former Air Force One. The president himself had announced on his social network Truth Social that he would use that aircraft to continue his trip to the United Kingdom.
The decision also had a public explanation, since the head of state had indicated he would travel on the former presidential plane “for old times’ sake,” while the new Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar would also head to the Royal Air Force base in Mildenhall, where U.S. military personnel would have the opportunity to see the aircraft.
The maneuver would have allowed maintaining that version of events while the real transfer of the authority was carried out independently.
According to The Washington Post, Trump was transferred to the C-32A after having boarded the former Air Force One in front of the cameras. The aircraft used for the secret transfer later landed in the United Kingdom around 10:20 PM local time.
The Air Force One and the journalists traveling on it arrived just a few minutes later.
Despite the above, it is still unclear how Trump was transferred again from the C-32A to the former presidential plane. However, the group of journalists accompanying the president reported that he descended the stairs of the former Air Force One at 10:56 PM local time.
Subsequently, the president greeted members of the U.S. Armed Forces before heading to the new presidential plane donated by Qatar.
One of the most striking elements of the operation was that even some members of the presidential press group and White House officials apparently were unaware that Trump had left the former Air Force One.
The journalists who believed they were traveling with the president were instructed to keep the blinds of the windows in the press section closed during the flight.
When later asked about the reason for that instruction, Trump responded that they were probably “on a dangerous flight” and added: “But if I go, you go. Right?”.
According to the background cited by U.S. media, the president’s real location was also hidden from part of the White House staff.
An official cited said that a credible threat against Trump related to Iran was what triggered the so-called “deception operation.”
It is worth noting that Turkey shares a border with Iran, a circumstance that would have increased security concerns during the U.S. president’s movement at the mentioned summit.
So far, the White House and the Department of Defense have not publicly provided additional details about the nature of the threat attributed to Iran, nor about the specific procedures used to transfer the president from Ankara to the United Kingdom.
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