Trump Secretly Evacuated from Turkey on Military Jet Amid Iranian Threat, Officials Say

Top White House officials orchestrated a covert operation to secretly transport President Trump out of Turkey during last month’s NATO summit, using a food cart to move him to a military aircraft due to a credible threat from Iran targeting both the president and Air Force One, a senior U.S. official revealed Monday.

President Trump had initially traveled to Turkey aboard a luxurious 747-8 donated by Qatar, which the U.S. government retrofitted for presidential use. However, he unexpectedly announced he would depart on one of the older Boeing aircraft instead, citing “old time’s sake.”

The Qatari jet proceeded ahead of the older plane to a U.S. military base in the United Kingdom while President Trump boarded the vintage aircraft at Ankara’s airport under media scrutiny. Rather than flying out on that plane, he was covertly transferred via a modified catering cart to a waiting vehicle, then driven to a third aircraft—a C-32A military transport—a senior official familiar with the situation explained.

The Washington Post first reported details of this clandestine extraction, identifying the backup aircraft as a military variant of a Boeing 757. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, and the Defense Department referred inquiries to the White House.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung had previously hinted at such tactics, stating that “many enemies of America” were targeting the president and that the administration employed “distraction and misdirection” methods to counter threats.

The extensive measures taken to secretly remove the president from Turkey indicated officials considered the Iranian threat serious enough to warrant deliberate misinformation of traveling press. Reporters covering the president were allowed to document his boarding of the decoy aircraft while the actual evacuation occurred unnoticed.

The threat was not exclusive to the Qatari-donated jet but rather followed the president regardless of which aircraft he used, according to previous reporting by The New York Times.

“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft equipped with advanced security protocols ensuring the president and staff’s safety,” Cheung stated in a briefing the day after Trump departed the NATO summit.

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