U.S. officials used a catering truck and a secret flight to evacuate President Trump from Turkey amid alleged Iranian threat
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
After receiving intelligence about a possible Iranian plot to target Air Force One, the Secret Service and senior U.S. officials arranged for President Trump to leave Ankara on a smaller aircraft, using a disguised catering truck as a decoy.
U.S. officials in Ankara accelerated a covert exit plan for President Donald Trump after receiving intelligence that Iran might attempt to shoot down Air Force One with a shoulder-fired missile. The warning, relayed by Israeli contacts and reviewed by the CIA, was deemed serious enough to warrant extraordinary measures, according to a senior official.
In the hours following the NATO summit, a small team led by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine coordinated with the Secret Service to move the president from the Beştepe Presidential Complex to Ankara airport. Rather than using the high-profile Qatar-donated Boeing 747 or the traditional Air Force One, Trump was placed in the older C-32A aircraft. To conceal his movement, the president and a handful of staff were loaded into an empty catering truck that had been positioned beside the plane. The truck then drove the 162-second distance across the tarmac, where the president transferred to the C-32A for departure to a British airbase.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials accompanied Trump on the flight, while senior aides remained on the larger jet, unaware of the switch. The Secret Service later confirmed that decoy tactics, such as using identical aircraft or vehicles, are a routine part of presidential protection.
"The threat was serious enough that extreme measures needed to be taken that day," a U.S. official told CNN.
No evidence of a missile plot was found after the president’s departure, and Turkish authorities reported no arrests related to the alleged scheme.