World
The Trickery of Trump's Plane Swap
— 3 mins read
The president boarded Air Force One on camera in Ankara, then slipped out the other side while journalists were told to pull down their shades
Donald Trump secretly switched planes as he left the NATO summit in Turkey on 8 July, after US intelligence detected a credible Iranian plot to fire a missile at his aircraft, according to reporting by the Washington Post and CBS News. Trump publicly confirmed the swap on 12 August.
How the switch worked
The president boarded the older Air Force One jet at Ankara airport in full view of television cameras. He had announced on Truth Social that he would fly home on the legacy plane 'for old time's sake', according to Reuters.
He did not stay on it. An elevated catering truck, raised to door level on the opposite side of the aircraft, carried Trump and a small group of aides to a C-32A military jet parked nearby, the Washington Post reported. The C-32A is a modified Boeing 757 normally used by the vice-president.
Reporters should be informed of credible security threats so they can make informed decisions about their safety.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth boarded the C-32A separately by external stairs to make the flight look routine. The secret aircraft flew under the call sign 'Reach 18', while the decoy jet carrying the press kept the 'AF1' call sign, BBC News reported.
Both planes flew to RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk. Trump was driven from the C-32A back to the legacy jet, so he could be seen publicly walking down its steps before continuing to the US.
The press were kept in the dark
Journalists and some White House staff on the decoy plane did not know the president was no longer on board, according to PBS. A pool producer's report for the White House Correspondents Association said the Secret Service asked press members to keep their window shades down. A photographer who briefly opened one was told to close it.
Jose Zamora, Americas regional director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the administration 'has a responsibility to ensure that journalists covering the president are not unnecessarily exposed to danger'.
Why the threat was taken seriously
The switch came one day after US forces resumed military strikes on Iran, after negotiations between Washington and Tehran broke down. US and Turkish intelligence pointed to a credible plot involving a surface-to-air or shoulder-fired missile linked to Iran or its proxies, CBS News reported, citing US officials.
Trump had arrived in Turkey on a Boeing 747-8 gifted by Qatar and valued at around $400 million (c.£294 million). The US has spent months retrofitting the jet, with further upgrades planned for the autumn, ABC News reported. Estimates for the upgrade work range from hundreds of millions of dollars to roughly $1 billion (c.£736 million).
What Trump says now
Trump confirmed the operation in comments on 11 and 12 August, saying he had followed Secret Service and military instructions. He claimed the plane he actually flew on 'was at greater risk' than the decoy, according to Al Jazeera, and said he has 'a lot of threats' but does not worry about them.
The Justice Department has been investigating leaks about the Qatari jet's security features, including subpoenas issued to New York Times journalists that were later withdrawn in some cases. Whether that inquiry extends to reporting on the plane swap itself has not been confirmed.
