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Shortly after attending the NATO Summit in Turkiye on July 8, US President Donald Trump took a secret flight out of the country amid threats of an Iranian assassination attempt, according to a report by the Washington Post.
The clandestine mission, which was not reported earlier, was carried out unbeknownst to journalists and some White House staff members who believed they were on the same plane as President Trump, as per the material reviewed by the Washington Post, a US official familiar with the operation and another person with knowledge of the President's travel who spoke on the condition of anonymity. According to corroborating material reviewed by the Washington Post and the US official, while Trump boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of cameras, he was secretly shuttled out minutes later into a smaller plane- the Air Force C-32A via an airport catering truck used typically to load meals and other supplies pre-flight. To exit that plane without being seen, Trump and several aides stepped aboard an airport catering truck, which was elevated plane-side using hydraulics and positioned at a door on the opposite side of Air Force One's entrance, according to the U.S. official and other corroborating material reviewed by the Washington Post. Hence, the Air Force One was a "decoy" with media and some members of the White House staff aboard, as per the official. The blue-and-white C-32A, a modified Boeing 757 used to transport American government officials, had been flown to Turkiye along with the legacy Air Force One and the former Qatari jet to support the president's visit, the US official said. Defending the jet gifted by Qatar, White House Communications Director Steven Chueng said in a statement responding to a query by the Washington Post-- "The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff," "As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats," it added. It further mentioned that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also boarded the C-32 A separately, using external stairs in order to make the flight appear typical. According to the Washington Post, while no flight tracker data could be found for the C-32 A, videos posted on Youtube showed the former Qatari jet landing which was followed by a C-32A hours later and the legacy Air Force One several minutes later. It mentioned that while it was not clear how Trump moved from C-32 A to the legacy Air Force One after landing, the Washington Post said referring a media pool report that he exited the Air Force One at 10:56 PM. Trump was in Ankara to attend the NATO Summit with world leaders in July. The decoy has raised questions about how much information the US administration has disclosed about the operation since the President's actual location was concealed from several senior US officials and the American public. The Washington Post noted its in report that the Trump operation highlighted the depth of concerns US security officials had about POTUS leaving Turkiye-- a country that shares border with Iran. The US official said that a credible threat to Trump involving Iran set the "deception operation" into motion. There have been other times in the last 30 years when Air Force One served as a decoy for the president because of a serious threat or because he was flying to a dangerous location, another U.S. official said, declining to elaborate. (ANI)
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