Donald Trump secretly abandoned a plane full of journalists and White House staff in Türkiye last month after U.S. intelligence warned of an alleged Iranian threat to shoot down Air Force One, raising sharp questions about whether reporters were knowingly used as decoys while the president slipped away in an airport catering truck.
The Washington Post reported that Trump climbed off the aircraft and into the truck minutes after cameras filmed him boarding the plane in Ankara, where he'd attended a NATO summit. The Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. received intelligence from Israel warning that Iran planned to use shoulder-to-air missiles against the presidential aircraft. The plane then departed Türkiye carrying members of the media and some White House staff who believed they were traveling with the president.
Who Was Left Behind
Secretary of State Marco Rubio remained on the original plane, according to an unnamed U.S. official who spoke to the Journal. The White House hasn't challenged the reports, saying only that "there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats."
David Axelrod told CNN the arrangement raised serious ethical concerns. "Everyone on that plane was a decoy," he said. "If they felt that it was unsafe to be on the plane, then it was unsafe for everybody else to be on the plane as well." The blunt assessment highlighted what critics see as a willingness to place civilian staff and journalists at risk without their knowledge or consent.
Trump defended the decision, saying he believed the plane he traveled on faced "greater risk" than the decoy aircraft. "I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for," he said. He added that officials "wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane — equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it." Trump also said he didn't ask for details about the threat. "I just knew there was a threat out there, I didn't really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats," he said. "I have a lot of threats that you don't know about."
Security Experts Weigh In
Robert McDonald, a University of New Haven protective travel expert and former Secret Service agent, said backup planes aren't unusual for presidential travel. "Everywhere the president travels overseas, there's always a backup plane," he said. He insisted the decoy plane would've been well protected and added, "Were the press decoys on the other plane? I'm willing to bet there were plenty of assets in and around those two 747s flying from Turkey to England, whether it be Air Force, allied air forces, different capabilities." He said, "Nobody let the press dangle out there or the other members of the White House staff. They were all part of that plan."
But that assurance did little to address the fundamental question of informed consent. Asli Aydintasbas, a foreign policy expert at Washington's Brookings Institution, said the episode felt surreal. "It just feels more Netflix than reality," she said. She noted that the elaborate nature of the deception suggested officials took the threat seriously. "We don't know the type of intelligence they received. [But] the way they have developed such an elaborate scheme with a catering container leads me to the conclusion that it was a pretty serious threat."
Propaganda and Power
Aydintasbas also warned the story would likely become a propaganda victory for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "It's a huge publicity coup for the IRGC," she said. "Here is NATO, the strongest military alliance in the history of humankind, and the United States, the strongest military in human history, having to find a way of transporting the US president in an elaborate deception campaign." She added, "And I think that is pretty much something that Iranians would be proud of — that they can still instil fear in the West and in Washington."
The incident occurred on what was supposed to be a showcase moment for U.S. technology. Trump had flown to Ankara on a new Air Force One plane gifted to the U.S. by Qatar — the jet's first international presidential trip. At the NATO summit, Trump announced he'd depart on an older Air Force One plane "for old time's sake." It was later reported the newer aircraft lacked some defensive security features of the older jet. Trump boarded the older plane in view of TV cameras before being secretly moved to a smaller Air Force C-32A via the catering truck.
Why This Matters:
The revelation that journalists and White House staff were kept in the dark while potentially serving as decoys raises fundamental questions about transparency and the duty of care owed to civilians in government service. While presidential security necessarily involves secrecy, the decision to place reporters and staff on what officials apparently considered a target without their knowledge tests the boundaries of acceptable risk transfer. The episode also hands adversaries a narrative victory, demonstrating that credible threats can force elaborate evasive maneuvers even for the world's most powerful military. For working journalists and government employees, it's a stark reminder that proximity to power can carry undisclosed dangers — and that those dangers may be deemed acceptable costs by officials focused solely on protecting the principal.