Top administration officials engaged in an elaborate deception to spirit US president Donald 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 US officials said on Monday.Trump and other officials had said publicly that he would be leaving Turkey on July 8th aboard one of the older versions of Air Force One rather than a luxury 747-8 donated by Qatar that he had flown in on. Trump told reporters at the time that he was making the switch for “old time’s sake”.Trump boarded the older plane from the left-side door in view of cameras, and news organisations, reported that he had travelled on it to Britain, where he switched back to the newer plane. The New York Times reported at the time that the decision was driven in part by concern about the security of the new plane donated by Qatar, which had not been equipped with all the defensive capabilities of older versions.But instead of flying out aboard that older, powder blue, modified 747, 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 travelling with him boarded, one of the US officials said. The president was then taken to a third plane, which he flew in secret to Britain, the official with knowledge of the matter said.Reporters on the older plane were not told that Trump had not flown with them from Turkey to an airbase in Britain, making them unwitting participants in the ruse and leaving them, along with some White House staff members, to serve as unknowing decoys.After Trump arrived in Britain, he was secretly moved back to the older version of Air Force One. He then disembarked in view of reporters and walked across the tarmac to the plane donated by Qatar, which he flew to Washington.US president Donald Trump steps off Air Force One to board the new Qatari-gifted Boeing aircraft at Mildenhall air base in England. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images The elaborate plan appears to have been developed in a matter of hours after officials determined that a threat against Trump from Iran was credible. It came after years of threats against Trump from Iran and amid the war he launched against that country. And it was an unusual instance of the public being deceived about a president’s whereabouts.Officials have not previously acknowledged that Trump was not where they claimed he was. The furtive operation was reported earlier by The Washington Post, which identified the plane that carried the president to Britain from Turkey as a C-32A, a military variant of a Boeing 757.Donald Mihalek, a former Secret Service agent who worked in the protective details for US presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama, said the service has used decoy motorcades and flights in the past to move presidents secretly.“Any time the president is in a theatre where there’s potential combat danger, the Secret Service has employed protective countermeasures including the use of a decoy,” Mihalek said.He added that the agency has long prioritised the security of the president over transparency with the public.“The agency is not the agency of public affairs,” he said. “The agency is the agency of the Secret Service. Their number one job is to keep the president safe.”US president Donald Trump leaves Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on July 9th. Photograph: Doug Mills/New York Times