Another day, another leak about President Trump’s plane swap in Turkey.
President Trump took a secret flight from Turkey to the UK on an alternate military aircraft on July 8 after he was quietly moved from Air Force One due to an Iranian threat.
According to a leak to The Washington Post, Air Force One was used as a ‘decoy’ while President Trump flew on a smaller C-2A plane. Pool reporters thought they were flying with President Trump from Turkey to the UK.
However, President Trump was quietly moved from Air Force One to the smaller plane by jumping into an airport catering truck.
The latest leak to CBS News reveals more information about the intelligence gathering and the precise time the decision was made to switch President Trump to another plane.
CBS News, citing anonymous US officials who were “not authorized to discuss sensitive matters,” Turkey’s MIT intel picked up information about the Iranian plot to fire a missile at Air Force One.
The anonymous sources also told CBS News that the decision to swap Trump’s plane was made during the NATO summit.
It was previously reported by The Wall Street Journal that Israeli intel also warned the CIA about an Iranian threat.
CBS News reported:
Last month’s elaborate ruse that saw President Trump secretly move from Air Force One to another plane by way of a catering truck took place within a day of U.S. and Turkish intelligence picking up on an Iranian plot to fire a missile at the presidential jet, CBS News has learned.
The decision to shift Mr. Trump to a different plane was made while the annual NATO conference was underway in Ankara, according to two law enforcement officials and a U.S. official. The president had flown into the Turkish capital on a newly retrofitted Boeing 747 donated by the government of Qatar, but an older white-and-blue jet that has served as Air Force One since the 1990s was also on the ground as a support aircraft.
Ahead of Mr. Trump’s July 8 departure from the summit, the National Security Agency, the CIA and Turkey’s MIT intelligence service picked up streams of information about a credible plot by Iran to fire a surface-to-air missile at Air Force One, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive matters.
There were also reports of a team in Turkey tasked with firing the surface-to-air missile at the plane, the U.S. officials said. But after more probes, no team was detected.
President Trump on Tuesday evening confirmed he secretly switched planes last month as he departed Ankara, Turkey.
A reporter asked President Trump about a leak to the Washington Post that revealed he secretly switched planes as he departed Turkey for the UK and used Air Force One as a ‘decoy.’
“It’s only up to the Secret Service. I just follow what they’d like to do. So, I go by the Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane,” Trump told reporters.
“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it,” Trump said.
“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for,” Trump said.
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