A specific threat to Air Force One by a shoulder-fired missile emerged on the final day of last month’s NATO summit in Turkey, according to a person familiar with the matter, prompting the scramble among US officials to devise the furtive plan to sneak President Donald Trump out of the country on an alternate jet.
The threat was specific enough that officials feared Trump’s life would be at enormous risk if he flew out of the country on either the legacy Air Force One plane or the Qatar-donated jet that he used to fly to the summit.
The person declined to say where information about the threat originated, but said it was believed to be serious in part because of how specifically the Iranians seemed to know details of Trump’s arrangements in Turkey. Trump spent one night in Ankara, the Turkish capital, at a luxury chain hotel downtown, and traveled several times between the hotel and the summit venues.
Officials, including from the military and Secret Service, put together the plan to move Trump to another plane by way of a catering truck to fly out of the country within hours. Trump had been accompanied to Turkey by several senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine. But not all would join the president when he left.
