Threat of an Iranian attack and Trump left Turkey aboard a special military flight

All the journalists and White House staff members present on the sky giant allowed to travel with the president were convinced that he was also on board, as always. Instead, the unprecedented mission revealed by the pages of the Washington Post tells of an extraordinary measure taken due to the risk of an attack. Ankara, last July 8. At the end of the NATO summit, "Trump boarded the old jumbo jet Air Force One under the watch of cameras," writes the newspaper, "but a few minutes later, he was secretly transferred to a smaller plane, a C-32A of the Air Force, using a catering truck at the airport, usually employed to load meals and other supplies before the flight." The account provided by a U.S. official, who requested anonymity, is confirmed by material examined by the Post. In this way, Air Force One became a decoy, the official explained, likely in response to the threat of attacks against the president by Iran. The maneuver ensured that the president's actual location remained hidden from the American public and many high-ranking U.S. officials for hours. The U.S. administration stated that Trump left Turkey on July 8 aboard the former Air Force One, while the president, on social media, announced he would use the old aircraft instead of the plane that brought him there, a more recent Boeing 747-8 donated to the United States by Qatar, which the president himself had questioned in recent weeks. White House communications director Steven Cheung issued statements defending the new jet: "It is a state-of-the-art aircraft equipped with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the president and his staff. As the president recently stated, there are many enemies of America targeting him, and we use every tool at our disposal to counter these threats."