U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that he secretly switched from Air Force One to a smaller military aircraft when leaving Turkey after the NATO summit in July.
Mr Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the military and the Secret Service made the decision following a security threat from Iran.
“I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane,” Mr Trump said. “I just have to do what they say.”
The confirmation followed The Washington Post’s report on Monday that Mr Trump was secretly moved on July 8 from the presidential plane, which he had initially boarded, onto a C-32A military aircraft using a catering truck.
He flew on the military aircraft, which used the call sign ‘Reach 18’, from Ankara to the UK, while White House officials and reporters, who were oblivious of the development, flew on the Air Force One aircraft using the ‘AF1’ call sign.
The plane switch reportedly involved journalists being instructed to close their window shades aboard the Air Force One aircraft as part of the deception.
Concerns were raised about the safety of those aboard the decoy plane, but Mr Trump said the C-32A would have been at “greater risk… because that would be the plane, I think, that they would be more likely to go for”.
Mr Trump had said during the summit in Ankara that he was Iran’s “number one target” as tensions between Tehran and Washington continue.
“I guess there was a threat out there,” he said during a visit aboard Air Force One to an event in Ohio on Tuesday. “I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats. I have a lot of threats that you don’t know about.”
U.S. officials told CBS News that authorities had identified a potential threat to fire a missile at Mr Trump’s plane. According to The New York Times, credible intelligence had also identified a person carrying a shoulder-fired missile near the NATO summit.
Mr Trump, who arrived in Turkey on a Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar, had announced plans to leave on older Air Force One “for old time’s sake”.
A catering truck was raised to the level of the aircraft on the opposite side from where Mr Trump had boarded, according to The Washington Post. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also used external stairs to board the C-32A military aircraft, which the vice president often uses.
Following The Washington Post’s report, White House Correspondents’ Association met with Mr Trump’s aides to voice their concerns about the plane swap, including “press safety, the ability of the pool to maintain an independent record of the president’s movements, and the integrity and credibility of pooled reporting”.
The group’s president, Jacqui Heinrich, said that while the WHCA recognises the Secret Service’s responsibility to protect Mr Trump, the plane switch raises questions about their credibility as journalists.
“At the same time, I advocated strongly for the importance of maintaining independent press coverage of the president and an accurate historical record of his movements,” she added.