US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he was moved to a different aircraft while departing Turkey last month after the Secret Service and US military warned that the plane he had initially boarded faced a greater security risk.
“I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane… I do what they say,” Trump said. “I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats.”
“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 it,” he added.
Trump’s comments followed a Washington Post report that he was secretly transferred from Air Force One to a smaller military aircraft at an airport in Turkey amid an alleged Iranian assassination threat.
Trump had initially boarded the older, baby-blue Air Force One in full view of cameras after attending the NATO summit in Turkey. However, once aboard, he was covertly moved in an airport catering truck to an Air Force C-32A, which flew him to Britain, The Washington Post reported, citing a US official familiar with the operation and corroborating material reviewed by the newspaper.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Israel had alerted the United States to the threat that prompted the Secret Service to move Trump off Air Force One. Citing an unnamed US official, the newspaper reported that Israeli intelligence indicated Iran was planning to target Trump’s aircraft with shoulder-fired missiles.
Despite the reported threat, several senior Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, remained aboard Air Force One, according to the official.
The extraordinary security operation unfolded as tensions with Iran were escalating. Iran shares a border with Turkey, where Trump had travelled for the NATO summit and made his first international trip aboard a newly renovated aircraft donated by Qatar.
The deception operation was reportedly prompted by what The Washington Post described as a credible threat to Trump. A similar tactic was used in 2000, when then-President Bill Clinton travelled to Pakistan aboard an unmarked executive jet while the official Air Force One aircraft served as a decoy.
In Trump’s case, journalists who believed they were travelling with him aboard the older Air Force One were instructed to keep the window shades in the press cabin closed. Some White House staff members also reportedly believed the president remained on board.
The C-32A carrying Trump arrived in Britain at around 10:20 pm local time, with the older Air Force One and the media contingent arriving minutes later, The Washington Post reported. It was not immediately clear how Trump was subsequently transferred back to the older Air Force One.
