President Donald Trump left Turkey on a plane other than the Air Force One due to a credible Iranian threat, according to a new report.
The Washington Post detailed that Trump boarded the alternate military plane while hiding inside a catering truck.
The strategy included public claims that Trump, who had arrived in the country in the new plane gifted by Qatar, would depart in an older presidential plane.
However, images caught by the outlet showed that after Trump boarded the older Air Force One, he secretly got off in the catering vehicle and boarded an Air Force C-32A.
All three planes involved in the ruse then left the country separately. After arriving in the UK, Trump boarded the Qatar-gifted plane and flew back to the U.S.
CNN noted that the decision means reporters and staffers unknowingly boarded a decoy plane. It also drew attention to the nature of a threat that prompted such a plan.
Pool reporter Megan Messerly, from Politico, noted that the group was advised to "keep our window shades in the press cabin closed," something she described as extraordinarily unusual.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung reacted to the reports, telling CNN that 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."
Trump said last month that he has left instructions should Iran assassinate him. Speaking to the New York Post, Trump reiterated that he has "been on their list for a long time."
"I've left instructions: if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they've never seen before," he added.
The remarks followed a report claiming that Israel recently alerted the U.S. that Iran had devised a new plan to assassinate him.
One source told CNN back then that the U.S. had picked up intelligence about potential plans to target the president, but Israel provided new information about a specific plot. Trump appeared to dismiss the intelligence back then but said Tehran has wanted him "dead for years.!
