The New York Times reported on Monday that Donald Trump took a secret flight out of Turkey last month while he was there for the NATO summit.
Per the Times, “top administration officials engaged in an elaborate deception to spirit President Trump out of Turkey during the NATO summit there last month, transporting him in a catering container to a military jet because of a threat against him and Air Force One from Iran,” two senior officials told the newspaper.
Trump had announced he was leaving Turkey on one of the older versions of Air Force One, not the new one recently gifted to him by Qatar, and said at the time he was doing so for “old time’s sake.”
“Mr. Trump boarded the older plane from the left-side door in view of cameras, and news organizations, including The New York Times, reported that he had traveled on it to Britain, where he switched back to the newer plane,” the Times said. “But instead of flying out aboard that older, powder blue, modified 747, Mr. Trump was whisked off that plane via a catering container that had been lifted to the opposite side of the plane from where the journalists traveling with him boarded, one of the U.S. officials said. The president was then taken to a third plane, which he flew in secret to Britain.”
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Now, per HuffPost, it appears that video has surfaced of the moment of the switch.
Washington Post reporter John Hudson shared video from that day:
My favorite part: This Turkish catering truck nonchalantly moving from Air Force One to the other plane https://t.co/vQSoncQw9f pic.twitter.com/Ob5r1hxSwL
— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) August 11, 2026
“The press remained on the older Air Force One plane, unaware that the president had left. Even many of his staff were not informed, per the Post,” HuffPost reported about the switch. “All three planes arrived in the United Kingdom, where Trump ― once again, in secret ― returned to the older Air Force One and exited as if he had been aboard for the entire flight.”
The Times added that the threat from Iran was not to the Qatari-gifted jet specifically, but rather to whichever plane Trump was one.
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
