Inside a catering truck: how Donald Trump was secretly smuggled out of Turkey due to the Iranian threat
After it was confirmed that he was forced to change planes due to a threat to his life, The Washington Post revealed the details of the operation: the president boarded one plane in front of the media, was hidden inside a catering truck, and was secretly transferred to a smaller military plane. Even some of his staff members were unaware of the maneuver.
New details have been revealed regarding the unusual operation designed to protect US President Donald Trump from an Iranian assassination threat during his visit to Turkey last month.
According to the report, Trump initially boarded a plane that had previously served as "Air Force One" in front of the media. Shortly thereafter, a deception operation began: the president was placed into an airport catering truck and driven away from the eyes of journalists to another plane—a smaller military C-32A parked nearby. He took off from there to an American base in the UK under the pretext that soldiers wanted to take pictures with the "Air Force One" plane, and from there he flew back to Washington.
The operation was kept so secret that even some of Trump's staff members did not know he was flying on a third plane. For weeks, the impression was created that Trump had returned from Turkey on the old "Air Force One" plane, while the new presidential aircraft gifted to the US by Qatar was flown separately to the UK. In fact, journalists and some White House staff boarded the plane, convinced that Trump was with them, while in reality, he had already been secretly transferred to another military aircraft.
It now turns out that Trump did not take off on either of those two planes. While the Iranian threat and the plane swap were revealed last month, the new report details the camouflage maneuver carried out at the airport. The White House refrained from directly addressing most of the investigation's details. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung stated that the new plane is equipped with "high-level security protocols" designed to ensure the safety of the president and his staff.
