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Trump Hid in Catering Truck to Sneak Off Air Force One Amid Alleged Threat from Iran

HeadlineAug 12, 2026

An alleged Iranian threat to assassinate President Trump led to a secret operation last month that possibly endangered the lives of journalists and White House staffers. That’s according to The Washington Post, which reported Tuesday that Trump secretly swapped planes just before departing a NATO summit in Turkey, hiding in an airport catering truck normally used to load food and supplies onto planes. Trump then departed Turkey on a smaller military aircraft, even as the White House told the public he was aboard Air Force One alongside the reporters, White House staff and other crew members. The White House was responding to what it considered a credible Iranian threat to shoot down Air Force One. That followed the U.S. assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, members of his family and other top officials. Steven Cash, executive director of The Steady State and a former CIA intelligence officer, said, “It appears that the idea was we can reduce the danger to President Trump by offering up 100 or so people to be killed by the Iranians in his place.”

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