Trump hid in catering cart in secret plane swap to fend off Iran assassination threat
President Donald Trump was secretly transported away from Turkey in an extraordinary plan triggered by an assassination threat from Iran, according to a report.
Air Force One, a catering truck and a secondary military plane were all part of an elaborate “deception operation” to safeguard the commander-in-chief when he departed last month’s Nato summit in Ankara, The Washington Post has revealed.
Journalists and several White House personnel believed they were traveling with Trump on Air Force Once for his return journey to Washington, D.C, following the annual gathering of alliance leaders. Instead, The Post reports, Trump was smuggled out of the presidential plane and put on board another aircraft .
The newspaper based its account on reviewed documentation, a U.S. official aware of the operation and another individual familiar with the president’s travel arrangements.
Trump had originally arrived in Turkey on a newly-retrofitted red, white and navy blue jet presented as a gift from Qatar. Prior to leaving, however, he announced he would complete the first leg of his journey home on an older, baby-blue Air Force One aircraft.
At the time, the president explained that the luxury aircraft was departing Ankara early so that military personnel stationed in eastern England could view the updated Air Force One.
The president was filmed by television crews boarding the older jumbo jet in Ankara before it set off for the Mildenhall Royal Air Force base in Suffolk.
But shortly after stepping onto the legacy Air Force One, Trump was quietly transferred to a smaller Air Force C-32A plane. He was moved using a catering truck usually employed for loading inflight meals, before flying to Mildenhall in the smaller aircraft.
The White House did not directly address enquiries about the clandestine operation to transfer Trump onto a third plane or the scheme designed to make it look as though he remained aboard the baby-blue Air Force One bound for Mildenhall.
“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,” White House Communication Director Steven Cheung said in a statement.
The Secret Service declined to comment while the Air Force, which operates the executive transport fleet, directed enquiries to the White House.
During Trump’s stay in Turkey, the U.S. military carried out significant strikes inside Iran following attacks on commercial shipping in the surrounding region.
Intelligence officials had previously warned of a possible attack targeting the president or his aircraft, as reported last month by The New York Times and CBS News. Those concerns prompted heightened security measures and the decision not to fly the newly-gifted Qatari jet for the initial leg of Trump’s return from Ankara.
The switch raised doubts concerning the safety of the new plane, which the president later noted would undergo further security enhancements.
