New details are emerging about an extraordinary security operation involving President Donald Trump that unfolded with little warning and required the Secret Service to make a last-minute change to carefully established travel plans.
Officials reportedly believed the situation was serious enough that Trump’s movements had
to be concealed from nearly everyone traveling with him, including members of his own administration and the journalists assigned to cover the president. The Secret Service secretly moved Trump from Air Force One to a smaller C-32A aircraft in Turkey on July 8 after receiving intelligence about what one source described as a “credible, imminent threat” against the president.
The source declined to reveal where the intelligence originated but said security officials had very little time to respond and were forced to develop their plan at the last minute.
“They were scrambling to head off what they thought was a credible, imminent threat,” the source said. A second source briefed on the situation said officials had intelligence indicating hostile actors intended to target Trump, although there apparently was not yet a clear operational plan for carrying out an attack.
Trump and a small group of aides were subsequently transported using a catering truck to secretly switch from the recognizable blue-and-white presidential aircraft to a smaller and less conspicuous C-32A jet. Air Force One then departed Turkey separately, still carrying senior administration officials, White House staff members and the traveling presidential press corps.
Trump confirmed Tuesday that the unusual switch was made at the direction of the Secret Service.
The president traveled from Ankara to a refueling stop in Britain aboard the smaller aircraft without incident.
“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” Trump told reporters.
“I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for,” Trump added.
Douglas Birkey, executive director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, said one potential concern could have involved a new type of heat-seeking missile capable of targeting hot aircraft engines.
Such weapons can be more difficult to detect than traditional radar-guided systems
because they do not necessarily emit detectable radio waves and “can kind of come out of nowhere,” Birkey said.
Birkey pointed to weapons including the Iranian SA-67, which he said is believed to employ heat-seeking and laser guidance technology, although officials have not publicly confirmed what specific weapon or capability may have prompted the security operation. The New York Times separately reported that American officials had become alarmed after discovering that Iranians apparently knew where Trump was staying in Ankara, including the exact floor of his hotel.
The operation also meant that numerous senior Trump administration officials remained aboard Air Force One as it departed without the president.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House communications director Steven Cheung and other aides were reportedly aboard the presidential aircraft along with the 13-member press pool.
The source said Rubio had been briefed about the maneuver. White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, executive assistant Natalie Harp and Oval Office operations director Walt Nauta reportedly accompanied Trump during the secret transfer in the catering truck.
The revelation has prompted questions from some lawmakers and media commentators about whether officials and journalists aboard Air Force One were placed at additional risk.
The source said officials ultimately determined that maintaining secrecy surrounding the operation was in Trump’s best interests as tensions with neighboring Iran continued escalating. American presidents have previously used secret travel arrangements when visiting war zones and other dangerous regions.
More than a month after the operation, the precise intelligence that triggered the extraordinary maneuver remains undisclosed, but the source’s description makes clear that officials were not treating the threat as routine, Reuters reported.
“They were scrambling,” the source said, “to head off what they thought was a credible, imminent threat.”
