Trump Pulled Off Secret Plane Swap Using Catering Truck After Iran Threat: Report

WASHINGTON — Amid an assassination threat from Iran, President Donald Trump secretly departed Turkey aboard an alternate military aircraft while the rest of the world thought he was on board Air Force One, according to a report published on Monday.

As he prepared to leave Ankara, Turkey, on July 8, Trump climbed the stairs of the old Air Force One while the television cameras filmed him as usual. The journalists who took their seats were instructed to close their window shades, a direction that caused chatter on social media at the time.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that Trump was being shuttled to an Air Force C-32A plane on an airport catering truck that is usually used to load food and supplies onto the presidential plane. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also boarded the plane, but he used the stairs of the jet. When that plane took off, Trump’s real location became unknown to most people in the world for a number of hours, according to the Post.

Air Force One, laden with White House staff and journalists, departed Turkey as a decoy, according to the Post. Publicly, the White House said that Trump left on the old Air Force One rather than the new Qatari plane, and Trump had announced on social media that was his plan amid media prattle over the safety of the new jet.

According to the Post, however, Trump’s secret departure was due to an Iranian assassination threat against Trump.

US President Donald Trump disembarks from Air Force One upon his arrival at Etimesgut Air Base near Ankara, on July 7, 2026. (Photo by Doukan Keskinklç / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

The Washington Post sourced its reporting to a U.S. official, a person with knowledge of the president’s travel, and “corroborating material.” The White House did not confirm or deny the report to The Daily Wire, but it pointed to statements from Steven Cheung and the Air Force about the safety of the Qatari plane.

“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,” Steven Cheung said in a statement, in response to The Daily Wire’s inquiry. “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.”

The White House also directed The Daily Wire to a statement from the Air Force on the new Air Force One, praising the new aircraft as “safe, secure and equipped with the most advanced technologies necessary to meet the requirements of the presidential mission.”

“Those requirements were carefully crafted to prioritize mission over aesthetics, leaving much of the previous head of state interior layout minimally changed,” the Air Force said. “No risk was taken in security, safety or mission communications, but the collective team made trades on some of the less commonly used mission sets that Boeing must deliver to support the next 40 years.”