Trump’s Secret Flight From Turkey After NATO Summit

In July, President Donald Trump left a NATO summit in Turkey aboard a luxury jet provided by Qatar. Because the Qatari aircraft lacked the missile-detection systems of Air Force One, officials moved Trump to a smaller, unmarked government plane for the leg to the United Kingdom. He later re-boarded the Qatar jet, while Air Force One continued on as a decoy. The White House has not confirmed the operation, and officials have not denied the reports first published by The Washington Post.

Associated Press

U.S. presidents have occasionally used covert movements to protect national security. Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden each conducted undisclosed trips to war zones or crisis areas, often separating the press pool from the president’s actual aircraft. Clinton’s press secretary noted that reporters knew the president was on a plane but not which one, emphasizing transparency despite secrecy.

Associated Press

The White House has offered no detailed explanation of the Turkey-to-UK maneuver.

Associated Press

Security analyst Garrett M. Graff argued that while presidents have flown on unmarked or decoy aircraft before, the extent of Trump’s hidden movement was “unprecedented.”

Associated Press

• “We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places,” — Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U

Associated Press

• “As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” — Steven Cheung

Associated Press

• “There was no attempt to hide anything, much less lie about it later,” — Force One. Joe Lockhart, a White House press secretary for Clinton

Associated Press

• “You can imagine the different ways that this could have gone wrong, where, for a period of time, no one would have been able to independently corroborate the status of the U.S. president, or who was in charge of the U.S. government,” — Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U

Associated Press