U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday evening that his secret flight from Turkey last month, during which a decoy Air Force One aircraft carrying passengers was used, was arranged by the Secret Service and the U.S. military, UNN reports, citing ABC News.
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"It depends solely on the Secret Service. I just follow their instructions," Trump told reporters on the runway at Joint Base Andrews after a trip to Ohio.
"So I defer to the Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to fly on a different flight, a different aircraft. Same security. But they wanted me to do it, so I did it. I do what they say," Trump said about the plan to secretly transfer from Air Force One to another aircraft.
Sources familiar with the situation told ABC News that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were aboard the president's decoy aircraft.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was on another aircraft flying alongside the president, sources said.
All three administration officials knew that Trump had secretly transferred from the old presidential aircraft to a military aircraft because of a threat, sources said.
When asked Tuesday evening whether he knew about a specific threat at the time, Trump brushed off the question.
"I guess there was a threat. I didn't particularly ask about it. I get threatened a lot," Trump said.
When asked about the security of the Air Force One decoy aircraft, Trump said that he had faced greater risk on the other aircraft.
"I think the aircraft I was actually flying on was at greater risk," Trump said. "I think it was at greater risk because, I think, that was the aircraft they most likely would have chosen," he said.
Trump had publicly said that he would fly on the old Air Force One rather than the new Air Force One aircraft gifted by Qatar because he was sending it to a base in the United Kingdom so that military personnel could inspect it.
ABC News reported at the time that Trump had been advised not to fly on that aircraft because of security concerns amid the escalating conflict with Iran.
Aboard the Air Force One aircraft on which Trump was believed to be flying, journalists were told that the windows had to remain closed throughout the entire flight, and that this was a Secret Service directive. According to the Post, the Air Force One transponder was turned off despite the president not being aboard.
In a statement to ABC News regarding the Post's report, the White House said: "As the president recently stated, America has many enemies who are targeting him, and we are using every means at our disposal to counter these threats."
Trump secretly changed planes in Turkey due to a threat from Iran12.08.26, 03:57