President Donald Trump embarked on a wild secret plane transfer to protect himself from an Iranian assassination attempt last month.
Trump, 80, boarded the old Air Force One jet in Turkey in front of the media on July 8, but was shortly after secretly transported to a smaller third plane via an airport catering truck, according to The Washington Post.
The operation happened unbeknownst to journalists and even White House staffers aboard the former Air Force One, who believed that they were on the same flight as Trump despite the jet not being deemed safe enough for the president.
The former Air Force One was used as a “decoy” to thwart a credible assassination plot while Trump boarded an Air Force C-32A aircraft, which is typically reserved for the Vice President as Air Force Two, in secret, a U.S. official told the newspaper.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also boarded the C-32A aircraft separately from Trump using external stairs in an effort to make the flight seem normal, the outlet reported.
The covert action implies that Trump’s whereabouts were undisclosed to the public and to other U.S. officials for several hours.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung gave a statement to the Post defending the Qatari jet, saying that it “is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff.”
“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,” Cheung told the newspaper.
The White House had said at the time that Trump left Turkey after attending the NATO summit on the former Air Force One, which Trump had corroborated on Truth Social.
“To honor our brave men and women of the Military, we are sending the brand new, and truly spectacular, Air Force One to Mildenhall Air Force Base, in the United Kingdom, to give them a chance to tour the Aircraft,” he said on his social media platform at the time.
The president added that he’d ride on the former Air Force One “for old time’s sake” to Mildenhall as a patriotic gesture, though speculation swirled that it was instead over security concerns.
The New York Times had reported that the Boeing 747-8 jet gifted to him by the Qataris was not fitted with defense measures typical of other Air Force One models, including anti-missile security measures. The outlet reported that it was at the Secret Service’s request that Trump’s plane was switched amid the resumption of hostilities with Iran.
Nearly two weeks later, Trump admitted that the new jet was, in fact, not as safe as the older models he’d repeatedly criticized.
“Well, it has a lot, and you know it has a lot of capability,” he told reporters on July 19. “But as I understand it, in about a month or so they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out. So, they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it maxed out. It’ll take about a month.”
It’s not the first time such a deceptive operation has been utilized to protect the president.
A similar situation occurred in March 2000 when President Bill Clinton landed in Pakistan on a plain white decoy jet that had followed Air Force One amid high security risks.
A former official told the Post that putting the president on an alternate plane from the insignia-marked Air Force One can be effective for ensuring his security.
