President in the catering truck: Media: USA doubted Iranian threat to Trump

Washington. The US had doubts about an Iranian threat to US President Donald Trump, but still decided to carry out the deception maneuver on his way back from the NATO summit in Turkey, according to media reports. The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had provided the US with intelligence information that Iran was threatening Trump's life.

Employees of the US foreign intelligence service CIA had rated this as unconvincing, the Washington Post reported, citing current and former US officials familiar with the intelligence information.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Israel had collected information that Iranian proxies were talking about killing Trump during his stay in Turkey. The information was vague and not considered fully credible by many of Trump's employees, the newspaper cited government officials. Some suspected that Israel was trying to persuade Trump to escalate the Iran war.

The Washington Post also quoted a current and a former US official as saying that some US intelligence officials saw the warning of threats to Trump less as a transmission of information from Israel than as an attempt to influence US policy in the region.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the US soon collected its own intelligence information about the possible threat. Specifically, it was about the scenario that Iranian representatives could have fired a shoulder-fired rocket at Trump's plane when he took off from Ankara. However, US officials had doubts about the alleged conspiracy. Ultimately, the Secret Service did not want to take any risks and decided on the deception maneuver, both US media reported in agreement.

The Washington Post revealed on Monday (local time) that the White House had only pretended in July after the NATO summit that Trump had flown out of Ankara with a government plane. The 80-year-old entered the government plane in front of running cameras, but then allegedly unnoticed into a catering container placed on the side of the plane.

Its truck took him incognito to a smaller US military plane at the airport, which flew him to Britain. After the government plane landed in Britain, Trump's entourage switched from the old, light blue Boeing 747 to the new jet that had been given to Trump by Qatar. The President also boarded Air Force One there.

The public was supposed to get the impression that he had covered the entire journey in the government planes. In the US, he then got out in front of running cameras. Trump himself announced on Tuesday evening that the deception maneuver had been carried out on the instructions of his bodyguards. He followed their specifications, the Republican said.

"That's all up to the Secret Service." That also applied to the military. "I do what they say." The Secret Service is responsible, among other things, for the President's security.