Iran Knew Trump's Location Before Air Force One Ruse

The decoy effort to get President Donald Trump out of Turkey last month occurred after the threat of a surface-to-air missile against Air Force One was deemed sufficiently credible.

Iran also knew remarkably specific details about Trump's stay in Ankara during the NATO summit, including where he was staying and even which floor of the building he was on, according to two U.S. officials cited by The New York Times.

U.S. intelligence picked up multiple streams of information as Trump headed into the summit's final day on July 8, including a specific threat against whichever aircraft was carrying the president and a report that someone near the summit had been spotted with a shoulder-fired missile.

The intelligence triggered an extraordinary security operation designed to conceal Trump's movements.

Trump publicly boarded the older Air Force One before he was secretly taken off the aircraft, concealed in an airport catering truck, and transported to a smaller military jet that flew him out of Turkey.

Air Force One departed separately with senior administration officials, government employees, military personnel, and journalists aboard. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and senior White House aides Stephen Miller and Steven Cheung were among those on the aircraft, according to the Times.

The maneuver has drawn criticism because many of those aboard apparently did not know about the heightened danger.

Former Trump and George W. Bush adviser Joseph Hagin

 

defended the precautions, saying people traveling with a president accept significant risks and that revealing the operation more broadly could have compromised Trump's safety.

Trump confirmed Tuesday that he followed the instructions of the Secret Service and military.

"They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane," Trump said, adding that he gets "a lot of threats." He said the episode did not frighten him.

The president later secretly reboarded Air Force One in Britain before emerging from the aircraft in front of cameras, maintaining the security deception.

Trump has faced Iranian threats for years. During the Biden administration, authorities uncovered an Iranian-linked murder-for-hire plot targeting him.

Charlie McCarthy ✉

Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.

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