Trump says his decoy plane faced ‘greater risk’ in secret flight change
The swap, which happened after the NATO summit on July 8, wasn’t disclosed until this week.
United States President Donald Trump has confirmed that he secretly swapped planes due to a security threat after a NATO summit in Turkiye last month, and say he actually faced a “greater risk” on the decoy plane.
“I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters, following US media reports that his plane shift was made due to a potential Iranian assassination threat. “I just have to do what they say.”
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“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” he said. “I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for.”
Trump said: “I get a lot of threats.”
The switch, which occurred on July 8, involved the president being moved between aircraft in a catering truck and onto a military plane in Ankara, according to US media reports.
The White House said nothing publicly at the time, it was not reported until The Washington Post broke the story this week.
Despite the reported threat, the Air Force One aircraft was still carrying journalists and top aides who did not know the president had left.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has demanded that the White House immediately brief Congress on details of the mission and how it was executed.
In a statement, Schumer said: “It is unacceptable that Congress was kept in the dark and instead learned about this serious threat through press reports.”
“Trump has put America’s sons and daughters in harm’s way by getting into an unnecessary and reckless war, and this administration has repeatedly refused to provide Congress and the public with the transparency they deserve.”
He also accused Republicans of “prioritising Trump’s luxury and vanity over America’s security” and that “Congress must reassert its constitutional authority and bring this [Iran] conflict to an end”.
Numerous Iranian state-linked media covered reports of Trump’s plane switch, with the official IRNA news agency running a story headlined “Trump admits to fleeing for fear of Iran”.
IRNA also highlighted the fact that journalists and other officials flew on Air Force One despite a reported threat, saying they fell “victim to Washington’s security ruse”.
Other Iranian state and security-aligned media appeared to openly mock the US president’s secret departure, with the IRGC-affiliated Mashregh outlet writing of “the cowardly Trump’s escape in a catering truck” and curating social-media reactions and memes ridiculing the US president.
