President Donald Trump was whisked out of Turkey last month on a military aircraft in an elaborate plot to keep his location secret amid security fears from the war with neighboring Iran, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the plan.
The Washington Post was first to report the details of the clandestine operation, which included using a catering truck to get the president on the C-32 that flew from Ankara to Royal Air Force Mildenhall, a base in the United Kingdom.
The U.S. official confirmed the accuracy of these details. Trump deplaned the C-32, again secretly, and reboarded the older Air Force One jet to emerge in public view of cameras to eventually walk across the tarmac to the newer Qatari-donated jet, which lacks certain security measures and will soon be further retrofitted.
When reached for comment Monday night, White House communications director Steven Cheung did not dispute the Post’s story, which cited material reviewed by the Post, a U.S. official familiar with the operation and another person with knowledge of the president’s travel.
“The new Air Force One 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,” he said. “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.”
He provided a similar statement in July when asked why Trump flew on an older Air Force One instead of the newer one donated by Qatar between Ankara and Mildenhall and noted at the time that “distraction and misdirection” are some of the tools at the government’s disposal. The most recent statement did not include that phrase.
In both statements, Cheung said: “The new Air Force One 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.”
The White House on Monday also shared a statement from the U.S. Air Force about the new Air Force One that Trump decided not to fly on as he left Turkey.
“The aircraft is safe, secure and equipped with the most advanced technologies necessary to meet the requirements of the presidential mission,” the Air Force said.
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.
Senate Democrats want a briefing on exactly what happened.
“The Senate should be immediately briefed on the Iranian threats against the President, the extraordinary measures taken to get him out of Turkey, any risks posed to U.S. personnel, and any threat to the homeland,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Tuesday, adding it was “unacceptable that Congress was kept in the dark” and learned about the mission through news reports.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on Monday night called Trump’s undisclosed travels “downright scary.”
“There has to be a congressional briefing because it involves not just the safety of the president,” he said during an interview with CNN. “I want to know what precautions were taken to make sure that all of the passengers on that Air Force One, which was judged too dangerous for the president to fly on, what precautions were taken to keep the staff and reporters on that plane safe.”
Trump announced on the morning of July 8 that he would take the “former Air Force One” from Turkey to the U.K. “for old time’s sake.” He said the new Qatari-gifted plane would be taken separately to Royal Air Force Mildenhall in Britain to give troops a chance to see the new jet.
That evening, Trump boarded the old Air Force One in Ankara in front of TV cameras.
As the events of the secret mission unfolded, journalists who usually travel with the president, already on board the old Air Force One, were instructed to lower their window shades, according to a press pool report from that day.
Speaking to reporters during the flight from Britain to the United States on the Qatari-gifted plane, Trump was asked why journalists had been instructed to close their blinds, a detail the reporter asking the question called “weird.”
“You’re probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleazebags that we have to deal with,” Trump said.
Asked at the time if he was aware of a credible threat against him from Iran, Trump said he has “a threat all the time.”
“I’m No. 1 on their list, before you. But if I go, you go, right?” Trump told reporters. “Perhaps someday you want to change professions.”
He also denied that there were security issues with the new Air Force One plane that could have prompted him to switch aircraft in Turkey.
The U.S. government has undertaken decoy missions to protect U.S. presidents before, but their whereabouts were later revealed to the public.
In the hours after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the White House told reporters that President George W. Bush was taken to an “undisclosed location,” later revealing he had been taken to a military facility in Nebraska. The year before, when President Bill Clinton visited Pakistan, he descended from an unmarked white plane that had followed Air Force One. His exit, in plain sight, revealed that Clinton had not been on the presidential aircraft.
Footage from July 8 captured by the broadcast press pool shows an airport catering truck pulling up to the side of Air Force One after Trump boarded in Ankara, moments before staff and journalists loaded the same aircraft.
The catering truck pulled away from Air Force One about five minutes after Trump boarded, driving toward the C-32A plane. The truck was parked near the back for four minutes before pulling away.
A press pool note later that day said the flight from Ankara to Mildenhall had been “uneventful,” adding that Trump had not visited the press cabin as he sometimes does. The president was seen deplaning from the jet in Britain, meaning he would have had to sneak back on board Air Force One once at Mildenhall.
NBC News previously reported that a security decision led Trump to take the old Air Force One out of Ankara, a day after the ceasefire with Iran came to an end. The Secret Service urged Trump to fly on the old jet, sources told NBC News in July. The decision was made in consultation with the White House Military Office and the Defense Department. The new plane from Qatar, the sources said, did not have all the security measures that the old one did.
Trump said some days later that the Qatari-gifted plane would be sent away to get “maxed out” for upgrades. That plane, a $400 million Boeing 747, prompted controversy when it was given to him by the Qatari government.
Trump maintained that it would be displayed at his new presidential library in Miami. But last week, the president’s son Eric Trump told NBC News that a different Air Force One will be displayed in the museum, leaving the Qatari plane’s fate uncertain.
