Trump's Trials - Report suggests a threat forced Trump to switch aircraft as he departed NATO summit

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

President Trump boarded Air Force One last month as usual. But the Washington Post reports he was smuggled off the plane in a catering truck and flew on an entirely different aircraft due to a threat.Then, NPR's Michel Martin speaks with former Secret Service agent Robert McDonald about reports that President Trump boarded a military aircraft instead of flying aboard Air Force One from Turkey.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's terms. I'm Scott Detrow. Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's recent coverage of the 47th president. With a focus on ways his administration is pushing the boundaries of presidential power. Here's the latest from NPR. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Leila Faldi. It's the kind of cloak and dagger deception fit for a movie.

The president of the United States facing an alleged threat from a foreign power secretly whist away from Air Force One to fly on an entirely different aircraft. And yet, it is not fiction. President Trump has now confirmed that's exactly what happened in Turkey last month. Well, it's only up to Secret Service. I just follow what they'd like to do. So I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane. The concern was a threat from Iran. This is how Washington Post reporter Dan Lamath, who broke the story, described it to our all things considered colleague Juana Summers. What actually happened is that the president walked up the external steps to the old Air Force One,

waved to the cameras, and then almost immediately, we're told, walked off the plane on the opposite side of the aircraft, onto an elevated airport catering truck. That catering truck then moved Trump to a nearby military plane. In a few minutes, we'll speak with a former Secret Service agent, but the ways the agency protects the president. For more context on this, we're joined by NPR's Tamara Keith. Morning, Tam. Morning. Okay, so it sounds like the president's regular plane was ultimately a decoy.

Did the passengers on that plane know what was happening? There were White House staff, military personnel, secret service agents, and members of the press on the plane. The journalists thought they were flying with the president and were firmly instructed by the Secret Service to keep their window shades down, which is an unusual ask. I mean, the only time I've ever experienced that was on a secret Christmas night trip to Iraq with President Trump in 2018. What did the White House say at the time about Trump's trip back from Turkey to the U.S.? Well, Trump himself was later asked about the security precautions, and he made a joke about the press going down with him. Were you aware of any credible threat by Iran against her first one? I have a threat all the time. I'm number one on their list before you. But if I go, you go.

Right? But was there a specific fact today? So perhaps something do you want to change professions? The statement that day from White House Communications Director Stephen Chung is pretty telling in retrospect. It said, quote, we use every tool at our disposal, including distraction and misdirection to address those threats. Little did we know just how much distraction and misdirection was really a play. Okay, Tam, it's one thing to fly with a president you know is always a problem. possible target. It's another entirely to unwittingly be on a decoy plane. And you covered the White House for a dozen years as president of the White House Correspondents Association in 2023.

You were involved in planning the press coverage of President Biden's secret trip to Ukraine. How does this normally work? Is misdirection common? Yes and no. Take Biden's trip to Kiev. Two journalists who I selected were brought along to witness that long and perilous train ride through Ukraine. Everyone was sworn to secrecy. Like, when I was brought in for the planning, they made me take off my Apple Watch. There's always been a level of cooperation between the press and the White House to make sure the president's movements are independently covered, including in high-risk situations. Often, there are embargoes, so the information isn't released until the president is safe. But Trump and his team ditched the press entirely and went to great lengths to continue the

ruse long after the immediate danger passed. The Justice Department even sent FBI agents to serve subpoenas at the homes of journalists who reported on the security concerns around that flight. And walk us through why this matters. White House journalists traveling with the president actually serve a function as independent witnesses. So the American people don't just have to take the government's word for it. This is something past administrations have understood and valued. and now in a time of war and rampant conspiracy theories, this matters even more. NPR senior political correspondent Tam Rakey, thank you, Tam. You're welcome. For more on this, we're going to turn to someone with deep experience in this field. That's Bobby MacDonald.

He spent more than 20 years with a Secret Service where he often led teams focused on protecting top officials and high-profile international events. He's now a professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. Good morning. Thanks so much for joining us. Good morning, Michelle. Great to be with you. So President Trump has now confirmed that the Secret Service asked him to switch planes. As a professional in this field, what did you think when you heard of this maneuver? Yeah, I think there's a couple of pieces of the puzzle that we're missing here. I think that obviously there was some intelligence that was gathered on the ground while the folks were in Turkey.

A meeting of the minds of the White House staff, the military office at the White House and the Secret Service got together and came up with this plan to do a little deception. There are these types of things that are done on a much smaller state. scale on a regular basis. You know from your time at the White House that many times motorcade alignments for movements are moved around and cars are in different positions to give a little deception. This is one of the highest types of operations that I've ever seen. President Clinton, President Bush 43, had some deception movements done for some foreign travel in the past based upon intelligence, but this was definitely a big one. So do any ethical considerations come into play when planning a maneuver like this?

So I understand that you think that this may have been kind of an improvised move, right, because of given the circumstances that they felt that they had on the ground. But I am curious about sort of the ethical considerations here. I mean, the people on the plane were government personnel, secret service agents. They signed up for the job of potentially putting their lives in harm's way, if need be. But the journalists perhaps, you know, did not. Or if they think that they're going to be in proximity to the president in the pool, they could choose not to be in the pool.

So I was just wondering about this. Did that ever come up when you're planning these kinds of events? Yeah, I think in this instance, Michelle, that those two other planes, the 747s, if you will, that are being referred to as decoys, I'm willing to bet that they had a lot of assets

that were provided by the U.S. Air Force and our allies in the air and on the ground as they were moving. So I think the premise that those two planes were left out on their own I think is a little bit reaching. And I think that those other folks that were involved in these decisions had to have made that decision to make sure

that there was protection provided by them, either by the U.S. military or our friends in that region. But you don't know that for a fact? I do not know that for a fact, but I would find it hard to believe that two Air Force 747s would be left to fend for themselves without some support from our allies and from our Air Force. Let me play something else that the president said. This is what he said last month before leaving the NATO summit for the flight home. There was another list came out yesterday, and I'm number one on, I like being number one on TikTok better, but I'm number one on the list for killing. So what about that? I mean, the fact is during your time in the Secret Service, the fact is the United States, the president was often a target of, and other top officials were often sort of targets.

But where there are certain special circumstances here that you think led the Secret Service to want to make this particular maneuver at that particular. time. Yeah, great question, Michelle. I think that the fact that we were in the region, in and around Iran, in Turkey at the time, that Iran had some abilities to put some forceful tactics together to potentially attack those planes and attack the president were put into the mix here. And those type of decisions based upon a threat level now that is very high. We have a very high threat level back here domestically. We have a high threat level internationally. Look at the last two in almost two and a half years and the attempts that we know about that have been directed at the president. You know, the one thing the Secret Service doesn't have the luxury to do is to be able to have

a metric for the assassination attempts that may not have been noticed or may not have come to fruition based upon people seeing enough police around a venue. So there's a lot of different factors here that go into that decision. I have to believe that those decisions were not made lightly and that a lot of discussions with leaders of our country in Turkey at the time were held probably round the clock to make this decision and hopefully make it as being the right one. Before we let you go, though, as our colleague Tam Keith noted, the journalist covering the White House

are there to provide an independent record of the president's activities. The two instances that we know about where specific decoy maneuvers were made, the press was kept informed, at least a small group of them, were, is that customary in your planning? Or is this, in this event where no one in the press corps

was told about this, is that customary? Or is that unusual? I think there's two factors there, Michelle. I think one, we have a lot different communication abilities now that we didn't have 20 years ago. And number two, I think that's going to be one of those hard questions for you and your colleagues to be asking the White House staff in the White House briefing to see what their take is on that and how that will move forward. All right. That's former Secret Service agent Bobby McDonald. He led a number of teams that covered high-profile events.

Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, Michelle. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.