President Donald Trump secretly switched planes over security concerns about Iran after last month’s NATO summit in Turkey, boarding a military aircraft via an airport catering truck instead of leaving the country on Air Force One, according to a published report.
The Washington Post, citing material it reviewed, an U.S. official “familiar with the operation” and another person with knowledge of the president’s traveling schedule, said that Trump boarded the old Air Force One on July 8 “in view of television cameras.”
He was secretly shuttled moments later to an Air Force C-32A plane, according to the newspaper.
The clandestine move was carried out because of an assassination threat by Iran against Trump and Air Force One, The New York Times reported.
Trump had flown to the NATO summit in a new jet -- a Boeing 747-8 -- gifted to him by officials in Qatar, according to The Associated Press. The president then announced on social media that he would use the “former Air Force One” instead of the Qatar-provided jet, the Post reported.
The president told reporters at the time that he was switching planes for “old time’s sake,” according to the Times.
Security concerns about the Qatar jet prompted the switch, and Trump said last month that the aircraft would undergo more upgrades, according to the newspaper.
Trump was taken off the “old” Air Force One in a catering container that had been lifted to the opposite side of the plane, away from the view of journalists who boarded the aircraft, the Times reported.
The president was then taken to the Air Force plane, which he flew in secret to the United Kingdom, an official with knowledge of the matter told the newspaper.
After he arrived at Mildenhall in Britain, Trump was secretly moved back to the original Air Force One, the Times reported. He then disembarked in front of reporters and walked across the tarmac to the Qatar jet, which he flew back to Washington, according to the newspaper.
The Post said it provided the White House with details from its reporting and a list of questions.
In response, White House communications director Steven Cheung issued a statement defending the jet gifted by Qatar, according to the newspaper.
“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,” Cheung’s statement 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.”
A spokesman for the Pentagon referred questions to the White House, the Post reported. A Secret Service spokesman referred questions to the White House and Pentagon.
Publicly, the White House has repeated its account that the president left Turkey on the blue-and-white Boeing 747 that served as Air Force One, according to the newspaper.
It is rare for presidents to travel without the reporters who are part of the press pool, the Times reported.
President George W. Bush had a minimal press pool with him on Sept. 11, 2001, when he first flew from Florida to a military base and then to Washington in the hours after terrorist attacks, according to the newspaper.
Donald Mihalek, a former Secret Service agent who worked in the protective details for presidents Bush and Barack Obama, told the Times that the Secret Service has previously used decoy motorcades and flights to move presidents secretly.
“Anytime the president is in a theater where there’s potential combat danger, the Secret Service has employed protective countermeasures including the use of a decoy,” Mihalek told the newspaper.