The decoy Air Force One: Details of Trump's secret flight from Turkey

The details of the elaborate ruse that saw US President Donald Trump whisked out of Turkey last month, where he arrived to attend the NATO summit, had him hiding in a food truck before being moved into a military jet. All these were part of the security measures following secret information that the Iranians had plotted a plan to assassinate him.

A report that appeared in the Washington Post said the 80-year-old President boarded the old Air Force One jet in Turkey in front of the media on July 8, but was shortly after secretly transported to a smaller third plane via an airport catering truck.

After Israeli intelligence shared new intelligence with the United States regarding an alleged specific Iranian plot to assassinate  President Donald Trump, the President himself announced that he would be leaving Ankara aboard the old Air Force One instead of the luxury 747-8 donated by Qatar that he had flown in on.

He explained it, stating he was making the switch for  “old time’s sake.”

Trump was also caught on camera boarding the old Air Force One from the left-side door. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also boarded the C-32A aircraft via the external stairs in an effort to make the flight seem normal, the outlet reported.

At that time, major media reported that the switch to an older plane was partly driven by concern about the security of the new plane donated by Qatar, which lacked the defensive capabilities of older versions.

However, this act was a decoy. Trump was spirited off that plane via a catering container that had been lifted to the opposite side of the plane. He was then taken to a third plane, which he flew in secret to Britain. The third plane that carried the president to Britain from Turkey was a C-32A, a military variant of a Boeing 757.

The reporters and some White House staff onboard the plane had no idea that Trump was not with them inside the flight. They unwittingly served as decoys.

After the military jet landed in Britain, Trump was secretly moved back to the older version of the Air Force One. He then disembarked in view of reporters and walked across the tarmac to the plane donated by Qatar, which he flew to Washington.

Though the President rarely travels without the reporters for the sake of transparecy, experts believe the agency has long prioritised the security of the president over transparency with the public.

According to Donald Mihalek, a former Secret Service agent who worked in the protective details for George Bush and President Barack Obama, the Secret Service has used decoy motorcades and flights in the past to move presidents secretly. “

“The agency is not the agency of public affairs,” he said. “The agency is the agency of the Secret Service. Their number one job is to keep the president safe. Anytime the president is in a theatre where there’s potential combat danger, the Secret Service has employed protective countermeasures including the use of a decoy,” Mihalek told The New York Post.