Donald Trump confirmed he had to use a different plane to travel home from the NATO summit in Turkey due to a possible threat. The US President reportedly hid in a modified catering cart to be transported from the Air Force One, which he was seen boarding, to a secret jet as he made his getaway from Ankara last month.
President's account of the security measure
He told reporters overnight: "I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane. I just have to do what they say." This raised questions about the safety of those left on the original aircraft, dubbed decoy plane in the media over the past hours, but Mr Trump said the secret jet actually posed a "greater risk... because that would be the plane, I think, that they would be more likely to go for".
Details of the switch
Before the security ordeal, the US President announced that he would be flying home on an the old Air Force One "for old times' sake", and reporters were seen boarding the aircraft. The jet then flew to a US military base in the UK, without Mr Trump on board, before he then made the journey back to the US. Instead, the US leader was reportedly moved using a specially modified food cart attached to the underside of the plane before boarding a separate aircraft, Air Force C-32A.
Footage shared by CNN appeared to show him boarding Air Force One at 8.24pm local time before the reportedly modified food cart was seen pulling away at 8.30pm. Journalists and White House staff boarded Air Force One, not knowing the US President was being smuggled elsewhere.
Threat context
Mr Trump previously called himself the "number one target" for Iran during his time in Ankara for the NATO summit. On Tuesday, while travelling to an event on Ohio, he added: "I guess there was a threat out there. 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."
This came as Israel shared intelligence with the US regarding a new Iranian plot to assassinate the US President, according to two sources speaking to CNN. One source said the threat came during the same week that Mr Trump was in Turkey for the NATO summit, while the other said Washington had received multiple intelligence reports about the possible plans.
