Trump’s Air Force One Ankara decoy flight put top officials, reporters at deadly risk — report
NYT says Rubio, Bessent, and key aides were among those on the plane when it departed Turkey; US knew of ‘specific threat’ of surface-to-air missile against plane; someone near NATO summit had been seen with shoulder-fired missile
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While US President Donald Trump was sneaked away from Air Force One to a military plane at Ankara airport last month due to the threat of an Iranian attack, the lives of numerous US government officials and journalists who were nonetheless allowed to fly out aboard the presidential jet were at deadly risk, according to a report on Tuesday.
The officials who remained aboard Air Force One, which was allowed to take off after a NATO summit in Ankara despite the threat, included Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as top Trump aides Stephen Miller and Steven Cheung, the New York Times reported. CBS said Rubio and Bessent knew Trump had switched planes.
The broadcaster also reported that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and three close White House aides accompanied Trump on the military plane, and that the latter three accompanied the president inside the catering truck that was used to secretly take him off Air Force One.
US intelligence had multiple sources of information about plans to fire a surface-to-air missile at Air Force One and had received a report of a person with a shoulder-fired missile in the area of the summit, according to The Times, which cited two US officials with knowledge of the matter. “They knew that there was a specific threat of a surface-to-air missile against Air Force One, meaning whichever plane was carrying the president, and that someone in the vicinity of the NATO summit had been spotted with a shoulder-fired missile.”
The Times also reported that the Iranians had zeroed in on Trump’s exact location in Ankara, down to the specific floor of his hotel building.
The report said the credibility of the threat led to the decision to secretly spirit Trump away from the Turkish capital in a military plane while using Air Force One as a decoy.
Trump confirmed on Tuesday that he had been smuggled off Air Force One in Ankara because the Secret Service and US military told him to switch planes.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a media conference at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Trump had flown to the NATO summit in Ankara aboard a newly renovated Qatari-donated jet. The trip was the first international journey for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades, and origin, triggered questions over its cost and security systems. The trip took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.
Before departing the Turkish capital, however, Trump said he would instead use an older baby blue Air Force One plane “for old time’s sake” to fly to RAF Mildenhall in Britain. But after Trump boarded the old Air Force One in front of cameras in Ankara, he was secretly shuttled by an airport catering truck to a smaller plane, an Air Force C-32A, the Washington Post revealed Monday.
The report on Trump being clandestinely put on a third aircraft and quietly whisked out of the country added a fresh layer to just how seriously concerned US security officials were about the threat against the president during the ongoing war with Iran. The regime has been publicly pledging to assassinate Trump since the US killed senior Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani during Trump’s first term in 2020.
Calls for the US president’s death featured prominently in the recent mourning commemorations for the slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the US-Israeli strikes that began the war with Iran on February 28.
But the way the administration treated others on Air Force One sparked criticism. Joe Lockhart, a former White House press secretary for Bill Clinton, told the Times that the former president had a different approach to a similar situation.
“They just didn’t seem to give a second thought to anybody but the president and the few people who were with him,” he said. “We went out of our way to make sure the maximum number of people, especially civilians, were protected and not human shields. They didn’t even think about it.”
An adviser to former president George W. Bush, however, had a different take.
“I understand there is concern for those flying on what was assumed to be the primary aircraft,” Joseph W. Hagin said. “But when you go to work at the White House or travel with the president, you are accepting a not-insignificant degree of risk. Telling everyone what’s up in an operation like this would have obviously jeopardized the president’s safety.”
Besides the alleged Iranian plans, there have been multiple assassination attempts against Trump. Most recently, eight men were indicted last month on murder and terrorism conspiracy charges for their alleged roles in a thwarted plot to target officials linked to Israel, including Trump, Vice President JD Vance, other federal officials, trillionaire businessman Elon Musk, and “other high-value targets,” at the UFC event at the White House last month.
Federal prosecutors also alleged that the group discussed murdering Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not at the event.
The Times of Israel Community.