Top administration officials engaged in an elaborate deception to spirit United States (US) President Donald Trump out of Türkiye during the Nato summit there last month, transporting him in a catering container to a military jet because of a threat against him and Air Force One from Iran, two senior US officials said on Monday.
Trump and other officials had said publicly that he would be leaving Türkiye on July 8 aboard one of the older versions of Air Force One rather than a luxury 747-8 donated by Qatar that he had flown in on. Trump told reporters at the time that he was making the switch for “old time’s sake.”
Trump boarded the older plane from the left-side door in view of cameras, and news organisations, including The New York Times, reported that he had traveled on it to Britain, where he switched back to the newer plane. The Times reported at the time that the decision was driven in part by concern about the security of the new plane donated by Qatar, which had not been equipped with all of the defensive capabilities of older versions.
But instead of flying out aboard that older, powder blue, modified 747, Trump was whisked off that plane via a catering container that had been lifted to the opposite side of the plane from where the journalists traveling with him boarded, one of the US officials said. The president was then taken to a third plane, which he flew in secret to Britain, the official with knowledge of the matter said.
Reporters on the older plane were not told that Trump had not flown with them from Türkiye to an air base in Britain, making them unwitting participants in the ruse and leaving them, along with some White House staff members, to serve as unknowing decoys.
After Trump arrived in Britain, he was secretly moved back to the older version of Air Force One. He then disembarked in view of reporters and walked across the tarmac to the plane donated by Qatar, which he flew to Washington.
The elaborate plan appears to have been developed in a matter of hours after officials determined that a threat against Trump from Iran was credible. It came after years of threats against Trump from Iran and amid the war he launched against that country. And it was an unusual instance of the public being deceived about a president’s whereabouts.
Officials have not previously acknowledged that Trump was not where they claimed he was. The furtive operation was reported earlier by The Washington Post, which identified the plane that carried the president to Britain from Türkiye as a C-32A, a military variant of a Boeing 757. It is rare for presidents to travel without the reporters who comprise the press pool designated to be with them, or in their vicinity, without some general awareness of the commander in chief’s whereabouts.
Donald Mihalek, a former Secret Service agent who worked in the protective details for President George W Bush and President Barack Obama, said the Secret Service has used decoy motorcades and flights in the past to move presidents secretly.
“Anytime the president is in a theater where there’s potential combat danger, the Secret Service has employed protective counter measures including the use of a decoy,” Mihalek said. He added that the agency has long prioritised the security of the president over transparency with the public.
In this case, the threat led the White House to purposely mislead reporters assigned to cover Trump, leaving journalists to report that he was travelling on board a plane that was being used as a decoy.
