Last month, President Donald Trump visited Turkey for a fairly banal reason: a routine NATO summit. But when the president left the country on July 8, he took a secret route home. As he left, the White House reported he was on Air Force One. Trump even made a big show of boarding the plane in front of cameras before later sneaking out the back. But he was really on a different plane, unbeknownst to the public and many in his entourage.
To get people off the trail, Trump even posted on his social media site Truth Social, “For old time’s sake, we’ll be taking the former Air Force One, from Turkey to Mildenhall, a short trip that is totally worth doing in order to give our Great Military Heroes a chance to appreciate our beautiful new addition to the Air Force Fleet!”
Trump was referring to the “flying palace” — the Boeing 747-8 gifted last year to the Trump admin by Qatar, in what has widely been characterized as a bribe — which he took to get there. Instead of leaving on either that jet or “former” Air Force One, the president secretly hopped into an airport catering truck and shuttled to an Air Force C-32A, a smaller military plane.
The clandestine mission was first reported by the Washington Post, citing anonymous sources who say the move fooled some journalists and some White House staff members “who believed they were on the same plane as the president.”
The breakdown in negotiations to end the war with Iran at the time is cited as the reason for Trump’s hide and seek charade, fearing some sort of attack. Such behavior is rare for U.S. presidents.
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“In the first hours after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Bush administration officials did not immediately disclose the president’s whereabouts, saying only that he had been taken to an ‘undisclosed location,” the Post reported. “But they did not say he was somewhere he was not, and within hours officials revealed that he had been flown to a military facility in Nebraska.”
The same week that Trump switched planes, the New York Times, citing anonymous officials, reported that the Qatari-gifted Air Force One lacks the defensive countermeasures of the previous model. The White House later subpoenaed the Times journalists over the report, demanding to know who disclosed the information, and even brought FBI Director Kash Patel into the investigation. The subpoenas were later withdrawn.
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