US President Donald Trump secretly used a military plane to leave Turkey in July, following the NATO summit, even though the White House had said he was on board Air Force One due to an assassination threat from Iran, the Washington Post reported on Monday August 10.
Donald Trump traveled to Ankara aboard the new presidential plane offered by Qatar. P for his return trip, the American president should theoretically have used the same device. Finally, he announced that he was returning aboard an old Air Force One aircraft.
Enough to already raise security questions, while the Qatari device was used for the first time for a trip abroad. The American president had reassured, indicating on his Truth Social network that he wanted to use the old Air Force One plane so that the latest model could be shown to American soldiers deployed on the Mildenhall military base in Great Britain, where a stopover was planned.
Citing an anonymous American official, the Washington Post now reveals that, rather than using the old model of presidential jet, as officially announced, after boarding it in full view of the cameras, Donald Trump would have been secretly disembarked in a truck to borrow a smaller plane.
Portholes down
Once he arrived in the United Kingdom, he would then have found the White House team and journalists following him to finish the return journey to the United States aboard the plane offered by Qatar.
According to the Washington Post, such precautions were taken due to threats from Iran, a country bordering Turkey, against the American president.
If Donald Trump initially denied any risk, he made reference to supposed assassination attempts during the return flight.
“There are many enemies of the United States who have it in their sights, and we are using all the tools at our disposal to confront these threats,” said White House communications director Steven Cheung in a statement sent to AFP.
The journalists present on Air Force One had also received instructions, normally reserved for war zones, to keep the window blinds lowered.
Initial concerns had been raised about the plane offered by Qatar and which Donald Trump had converted into the new Air Force One, which was not equipped with the same security systems as its predecessors, according to the New York Times.
With AFP
