WASHINGTON
A threat that Air Force One could be targeted by a shoulder-fired missile prompted the Secret Service to secretly move President Donald Trump onto a smaller government jet during a trip to Turkiye last month, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. The threat emerged on the final day of Trump’s visit to Ankara for the NATO summit amid heightened tensions with Iran, the source said.
The Secret Service deemed the threat to be credible and imminent, prompting an extraordinary operation to conceal the US president’s movements. The source declined to say where the intelligence came from but said officials had little time to prepare and devised the plans at the last minute.
A second source briefed on the matter said there was not a clear plan by those hostile to Trump for executing the threat, but only an intent, which is why the planes were allowed to fly. Trump and a small group of aides used a catering truck to surreptitiously switch from the big blue-and-white presidential aircraft to a smaller, nondescript C-32A jet for the flight out of Turkiye on July 8, while Air Force One departed separately carrying senior administration officials, White House staff and the travelling press corps, according to the first source.
Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he made the switch at the direction of the Secret Service, which is charged with presidential security. He flew from Ankara to a refuelling stop in Britain without incident. “I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” Trump told reporters, without providing evidence. “I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for.”
