Trump says security threat spurred secret plane swap in Turkey

President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday night that he secretly switched planes when he traveled back from Turkey in July, saying a security threat prompted the clandestine maneuver.

Trump told reporters that the “Secret Service and the military” made the decision.

“They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane,” he said. “I guess there was a threat out there.”

NBC News previously confirmed The Washington Post’s reporting that Trump surreptitiously moved to an unmarked jet using a catering truck on July 8 after having boarded Air Force One in front of cameras. He flew on the jet from Ankara to a base in the United Kingdom, while reporters and White House staff members believed he was on board Air Force One.

“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for,” Trump said Tuesday.

He did not elaborate on why the unmarked C-32 jet he boarded, whose call sign was not marked as Air Force One, made it a likelier target.

NBC News also reported that the plane switch came, according to a U.S. official, amid a fresh Iranian plot to kill Trump, possibly involving a shoulder-fired missile aimed at Air Force One as it departed Turkey. Those left behind on the decoy plane included members of the media and senior White House staff members, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who are in the presidential line of succession.

Trump said he “didn’t really ask so much” about the threat, but he said he was “not surprised” there had been one.

“Any consequential president has a lot of threats. Nonconsequential presidents don’t get threatened, and I think that I may be the most consequential president,” he said.

Congressional Democrats are demanding a briefing from officials on the specifics of Trump’s flight last month and any security threats that surrounded it.

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