WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump covertly traveled across Europe in a military plane in July after Iran threatened his life, according to a bombshell report Monday night by The Washington Post that revealed press and White House officials remained on a decoy Air Force One.
The extraordinary episode unfolded July 8 after Trump boarded the former Air Force One following the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, after concerns reportedly arose about his safety on a new Air Force One, a retrofitted Boeing 747-8 jet donated to Trump by Qatar.
Trump had ordered a fresh wave of military strikes on Iran while attending the NATO summit, breaking a brief period of peace negotiations.
According to unnamed officials who spoke to The Washington Post, shortly after Trump waved to cameras as he ascended the older Air Force One, he was secretly taken to the back of a catering truck and shuttled to a nearby smaller Air Force C-32A plane.
Upon arriving at the Royal Air Force base in Mildenhall in eastern England, Trump was clandestinely ferried back into the former Air Force One and shortly thereafter descended the stairs in front of cameras.
Press corps members who routinely travel with the president, as well as White House officials, remained on the decoy flight from Turkey to eastern England under the impression that Trump was on board, according to officials. The Post granted the officials anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the incident.
The Pentagon referred States Newsroom to the White House, which did not respond for comment.
The U.S. Secret Service did not respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment.
The catering truck
Photos taken by the traveling press pool from the tarmac in Turkey show reporters boarding the back of the former Air Force One via stairs on the right side rear of the plane. A catering truck, with its rear container raised to plane level, can be seen toward the front of the jet on the opposite side.
Once on the plane, members of the press were instructed by the Secret Service to completely close their window shades, according to a July 8 press pool report and a later press account Tuesday.
A pool report is an official dispatch sent to thousands of news organizations to keep journalists and the public informed about the president’s whereabouts and actions.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he was flying from Turkey to the United Kingdom on the old powder blue Air Force One “for old time’s sake” and so that U.S. forces stationed in England could tour the newly retrofitted Air Force One bearing a navy blue and deep red design accented by gold stripes.
According to official press reports from the night of July 8, the old Air Force One touched down at Mildenhall Air Force Base at 10:16 p.m. local time and Trump descended the stairs at 10:56 p.m. The pool report noted that neither the president or any White House officials had spoken to the press on board while in flight from Turkey.
After greeting service members, Trump then ascended the stairs to the new Air Force One and gave a wave to the cameras at 11:01 p.m. local time. The plane was off the ground at 11:14 p.m., according to official July 8 pool reports.
‘If I go, you go’
Trump spoke to reporters shortly after take-off from the United Kingdom and was peppered with questions about why he did not take the new Air Force One jet after the NATO summit concluded.
Trump denied any security concerns and said the new jet was sent early to the U.K., and “the whole base came out and saw the plane,” according to official pool reports.
When asked why reporters were instructed to keep their window shades shut on the old jet, which they were led to believe the president was also on, Trump said, “Well, yeah, because you’re probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleaze bags that we have to deal with,” he said, referring to Iran, according to the pool reports.
Reporters then pressed Trump on whether he was aware of a credible threat on his life from Iran.
“Well, I have a threat all the time. I’m number one on their list, before you. But if I go, you go. Right? Perhaps someday you want to change professions,” Trump told reporters aboard the flight according to the pool reports.
The New York Times reported on July 8 that Trump had switched planes because of a security threat related to the conflict with Iran. The Trump administration swiftly served subpoenas two days later on the reporters in a sweeping effort to learn the identities of their confidential sources.
The administration dropped the subpoenas on July 27 after a federal judge sharply criticized the investigation.
