President Donald Trump has confirmed that he secretly swapped planes as he left a Nato summit in Turkey last month due to a possible threat.
“I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters. “I just have to do what they say.”
The revelation comes after reports that Trump boarded Air Force One on 8 July in view of television cameras before being transported to a military aircraft with the help of a catering truck.
The last-minute switch has raised questions about whether those left on the decoy plane were placed in danger, but Trump maintained on Tuesday the military jet he boarded instead was at “greater risk”.
Officials told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the US had detected a credible Iranian threat to fire a missile at the plane. The New York Times reported that US intelligence had information of a person near the Nato summit who had been seen with a shoulder-fired missile.
Journalists and some White House staff on board did not know the US president had been smuggled out as part of an elaborate ruse in response to a possible Iranian threat.
Trump has previously said he was Iran’s “number one target” during the summit in Ankara.
“I guess there was a threat out there,” the president said during a visit aboard Air Force One to an event in Ohio on Tuesday. “I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats.”
He added: “I have a lot of threats that you don’t know about.”
The clandestine manoeuvre last month came a day after the US renewed military strikes on Iran following a breakdown of negotiations between Washington and Tehran to end the war.
Trump had arrived in Turkey aboard a newer Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar, but announced that he would leave on the old Air Force One “for old time’s sake”.
On 8 July, footage showed him boarding the presidential jet at Ankara airport.
But according to the Washington Post, he slipped off Air Force One on to a catering truck that had been elevated to plane level on the opposite side to where he had boarded.
He was then secretly taken to a smaller C-32A military aircraft – a modified Boeing 757 often used by the vice-president.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth boarded the C-32A separately using external stairs in an effort to make the flight appear normal, according to the newspaper.
Journalists and some White House staff boarded Air Force One and were reportedly told to close their window shades. They were unaware the president was no longer on board.
A media pool producer who was on the plane said they found it unusual when they were told to keep the window shades down. A photographer briefly opened a shade and reportedly was quickly told to close it.
The producer’s comments were detailed in a report from the White House Correspondents’ Association on Tuesday.
They also noted there appeared to have been two catering trucks at both the front and back of the plane when the press arrived, and that the media van had been too far back in the motorcade at the airport be able to take a photo of the president boarding.
Technically “Air Force One” is the call sign for any aircraft carrying the US president.
But on this occasion, the C-32A used the call sign “Reach 18”, while the aircraft carrying the journalists continued to use “AF1” in order to keep up the ruse.
Remaining on the original aircraft were members of Trump’s cabinet, according to the New York Times. The outlet, citing two anonymous officials, reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were on board.
Trump then flew to the UK en route to the US, where he reboarded the old Air Force One and was seen descending from the aircraft after it landed at RAF Mildenhall.
It is unclear how he moved from the C-32A back to the legacy jet.
The president then transferred to the new Qatari-donated Air Force One to travel back to Washington.
During that flight, Trump spoke to reporters on board where he noted the threats posed by Iran but did not mention the earlier plane swap.
Asked why reporters had been told to lower the window shades on the plane from Turkey, Trump said at the time: “Because you’re probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleazebags we have to deal with.”
He said he had a “threat all the time” on his life, and that he is “number one” on Iran’s “list”.
Jose Zamora, regional director for the Americas for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement that the Trump administration “has a responsibility to ensure that journalists covering the president are not unnecessarily exposed to danger”.
“Reporters should be informed of credible security threats so they can make informed decisions about their safety,” he added.
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