US President Donald Trump on Tuesday confirmed to have snuck out of the Air Force. One during a trip to Turkey in July, after the military and Secret Service wanted him to board a "different plane" due to a security threat.
His comments confirmed a report that first appeared in The Washington Post saying that Trump, following a NATO summit last month, was spirited onto a different plane because of a credible threat from Iran. The action was kept secret for weeks, until the newspaper’s story.
Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which, according to the report, saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.
“They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane,” Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter.
“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.”
