President Donald Trump returns to Joint Base Andrews on July 09, 2026 in Washington, DC. Trump, switched from the old Air Force One to the new Air Force One while stopping in the U.K. at RAF Mildenhall Air Force Base was returning from his visit to Ankara, Turkey where he attended the NATO summit. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump secretly boarded an alternate military aircraft for his July 8 flight from Ankara, Turkey, due to an assassination threat from Iran, The Washington Post first reported.
At the end of his trip to the 2026 NATO summit in Turkey, Trump boarded Air Force One as usual, then slipped into a catering truck which carried him to an alternate aircraft, according to the Post. Once on board Air Force One, the press pool was instructed to keep their window shades closed. Members of the press pool and even some White House staff believed he was traveling aboard the aircraft.
Trump had flown to Turkey in a new plane gifted by Qatar, but he said he would fly partway home on the old aircraft “for old time’s sake.” He said the plane would make a previously unscheduled stop on the way back to the United States at Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the U.K.
At Mildenhall, photojournalists took pictures of Trump disembarking from Air Force One, suggesting he had reboarded the aircraft out of sight of the press. Trump then traveled with reporters from Mildenhall back to Washington, D.C.
The White House has neither confirmed nor denied the story.
“Well, I have a threat all the time,” he said July 8 in response to a reporter’s question about a threat from Iran. “I’m number one on their list before you. But if I go, you go.”
