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August 12, 2026 / 6:29 PM EDT
/ CBS News
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Washington — 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.As the U.S.-Iran war nears the six-month mark, there is a significant ongoing threat from Iran to kill Mr. Trump, according to the officials. The president — who has faced multiple attempts on his life in recent years — has acknowledged the risk, calling himself "number one on the kill list for Iran" in a news conference shortly before leaving Ankara.The National Security Council, the White House Military Office and the Secret Service made the decision to change planes, two law enforcement officials and a U.S. official said. The decision was coordinated with officials in Washington, D.C.
