{"id":734211,"date":"2026-08-11T05:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/734211\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T05:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T05:02:10","slug":"trump-hid-in-catering-cart-to-board-secret-flight-in-turkey-amid-iran-threat-reports-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/734211\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump hid in catering cart to board secret flight in Turkey amid Iran threat \u2013 reports | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, Donald Trump<\/a> departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month when the White House said he was flying aboard \u2060Air Force One, in an extraordinary ruse that involved hiding the president in an airport catering cart, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times.<\/p>\n

The operation took place when Trump was in Ankara for a Nato summit with world leaders, according to the Post<\/a>. The president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras, and then was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight, a US official told the Post.<\/p>\n

An official also confirmed the operation to the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has reached out to the White House and the US Department of Defense for comment.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s actual location was concealed from journalists and some White House staff members. A US official told the Post that a credible threat to Trump involving Iran set the \u201cdeception operation\u201d in motion.<\/p>\n

The administration had previously claimed that Trump left Turkey on 8 July on the former Air Force One. The president had also announced<\/a> on Truth Social that he would use the \u201cformer Air Force One\u201d rather than the plane that flew him there, a new Boeing 747-8 gifted by Qatar.<\/p>\n

The trip to Nato was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, \u2060and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before departing Ankara, Trump said on Truth Social that he would use an older, baby blue Air Force One plane \u201cfor old time\u2019s sake\u201d to RAF Mildenhall \u2060in Britain while the new plane stopped at the same base so US service members stationed there could tour the aircraft.<\/p>\n

After Trump boarded \u200bthe old Air Force One in front of cameras in Ankara, \u200che was secretly shuttled to a smaller plane, an Air Force C-32A, the Post reported citing a US official familiar with the operation \u200cand corroborating material it reviewed.<\/p>\n

The deception operation was triggered by a credible threat to Trump, the Post reported. A similar operation had taken place in 2000, when Bill Clinton used an unmarked executive jet to fly into Pakistan while sending his formal Air Force One as decoy.<\/p>\n

On this occasion, the journalists who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older Air Force One reported being advised to keep their window shades in the press cabin closed. The Post said aside from \u200creporters, some White House staff also believed the president was on board.<\/p>\n

When asked later by reporters why they had to keep their shades shut during the flight, Trump said it was because they were \u201cprobably on \u200ba dangerous flight\u201d. He went onto say: \u201cBut if I go, you go. Right?\u201d<\/p>\n

The C-32A carrying Trump flew to Britain, arriving at around 10.20pm local time with the older Air Force One and media arriving minutes later, the Post reported. It was not clear, the paper said, how Trump was moved from the C-32A back to the older Air Force One, from which he was seen disembarking.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s traveling press pool reported he climbed down the stairs of the older Air Force \u2060One at 10.56pm local time. He gave press a peace sign but didn\u2019t walk over \u200bto talk to them. He then spent some \u200btime greeting service members before walking to the new, \u200bQatar-donated plane.<\/p>\n

When asked for comment on the revelation of a secret flight on a third plane, the \u200bWhite House provided a statement \u200cfrom Steve Cheung, the communications director, \u200bsaying the Qatari-donated jet has been \u200bfitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d Cheung said. It was the same statement provided to the Post.<\/p>\n

Maanvi Singh and Reuters contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, Donald Trump departed on a secret military flight from Turkey last month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-734211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}