Trump snuck off Air Force One in catering truck, departed Turkey on secret military flight after Iran threat: report
President Trump was secretly whisked off Air Force One in an airport catering truck last month and departed Turkey on a separate military flight in response to a threat from Iran, according to a report. The secret mission, reported by the Washington Post on Monday, left journalists and even White House staff believing that they were on the same plane as the president when they departed the annual NATO Summit in Ankara on July 8.But in reality they served as a decoy while Trump traveled in a smaller, Air Force C-32A. The elaborate ruse saw Trump publicly board an older model of Air Force One before being smuggled out in a catering truck that had been lifted up to a door on the opposite side of the entrance to the presidential plane. Trump was accompanied by “several aides” inside the container, which was lowered onto a truck on the tarmac and driven to the nearby Air Force C-32A plane, where the vessel was once again elevated up to a door, apparently allowing Trump and his aides to surreptitiously board the alternate plane. Like the older model presidential plane, the C-32A was also blue-and-white and emblazoned with the words “United States of America,” according to the Washington Post. War Secretary Pete Hegseth was on the secret flight with Trump but boarded separately, using external stairs in an attempt “to make the flight appear typical,” a US official told the outlet. After departing Ankara, the C-32A carrying Trump landed in Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United Kingdom.The plane arrived about 9 minutes before reporters and White House staff aboard Air Force One landed at the same base. Television cameras and media reports note Trump descended the external stairs from Air Force One about 25 minutes after the plane landed.
It’s unclear how the president moved from the C-32A to the other plane. At Mildenhall, Trump, White House staff and reporters boarded the $400 million Qatari-gifted jet that the president flew into Turkey on. At t...