Because of a 'shoulder-fired missile': Netflix to reveal in documentary how Trump was smuggled in a catering truck

The streaming giant Netflix announced that this coming Friday it will air 'The Decoy Plane', a new documentary about the extraordinary deception operation in which President Donald Trump was smuggled out of Turkey on a backup military plane, while journalists and senior administration officials took off in a plane that looked like 'Air Force One' without knowing that the president was not on board at all.

The film, the third in the 'InstaDocs' documentary series, will reconstruct the event using the testimonies of White House correspondents Graham Slattery from the Reuters news agency and photographer Alex Brandon from the AP news agency, alongside investigative reporter Carol Leonnig, Washington Post reporter Dan Lamothe, a former Secret Service agent, and a former Air Force One staff member.

According to Netflix, the film will examine not only the efforts made to protect the president but also the consequences: 'A plane full of journalists, and the public they are supposed to inform, were left in the dark.'

In the trailer, Brandon said he noticed two catering trucks attached to the presidential plane, one in front and one behind. 'I've never seen anything like this. I've been photographing presidents for forty years and I've never seen this,' he said. After the journalists were asked to close the window shades, he added: 'My spider sense started tingling. I didn't know why this was happening, and I was on high alert.'

The affair took place on July 8, at the end of the NATO summit in Ankara. Trump arrived in Turkey on the new Boeing 747 donated by Qatar, but announced that he would fly to the UK on the old presidential plane 'for old times' sake.' In front of the cameras, he boarded the old plane, but minutes later he was secretly transferred from the other side of the plane into a catering truck that was lifted to the door. From there, he was driven to a smaller military plane, a C-32A model, on which he flew to the UK.

Flying with Trump were Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and several of his close aides. Remaining on the decoy plane were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House staff, and 13 members of the press corps. Both planes were escorted by F-16 fighter jets. After landing at Mildenhall base in the UK, Trump was documented getting off the old plane in front of the cameras, although it is unclear how he transferred to it from the military plane. Afterward, he boarded the Qatari plane and continued to Washington.

When asked that night why the reporters were required to lower the shades, Trump replied that they were 'probably on a dangerous flight because of the villains we have to deal with.' He added: 'I am number one on Iran's list, before you. But if I go - you go, right? Maybe one day you'll want to change professions.' Only about a month later was it revealed that Trump was not with the journalists at all on the flight he was referring to.

'I do what the Secret Service asks'

After the operation was revealed, the president said: 'I just do what the Secret Service and the military ask me to do,' and claimed that the plane he was flying on was actually at greater risk.

According to reports, it was Israel that passed information to the CIA about a new Iranian plot to assassinate Trump. However, the Washington Post reported that analysts at the agency did not find the information convincing, and an American official described it as 'based on an Israeli source, not information produced in the US, and assessed with low confidence.'

It was further claimed, by current and former American officials, that some intelligence personnel suspected that the warning was also intended to influence Trump's decisions while he was considering whether to renew the broad campaign against Iran. One of them also linked it to concern in Israel over the warming relations between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On the other hand, CNN reported that after receiving the Israeli warning, the Americans collected their own information, which included a more concrete fear of an attempt to shoot down the plane using a shoulder-fired missile and that the Iranians knew precise details about Trump's whereabouts in Ankara.

A source familiar with the details told Reuters that the Secret Service viewed the threat as 'credible and imminent' and acted quickly because there was no time to verify all its details. The White House concluded: 'The president has faced many threats to his life, including from Iran, and every measure was taken to ensure his safety.'