Reporter's Notebook: How Secret Service used plane swap, fake walk to hide Trump threat

During the NATO Leaders Summit in Ankara in July, President Donald Trump expressed a desire to not fly home aboard the new presidential plane gifted by Qatar. Instead, Trump claimed the aircraft had been sent ahead to Mildenhall Air Force Base in England for service members to tour. The reasoning behind this decision seemed dubious as questions arose about potential assassination plots by Iran.

Throughout the summit, Trump frequently mentioned Iran's history of attempting his assassination during meetings with world leaders like Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy. As the group boarded the aircraft, Secret Service staff instructed reporters to close their window shades, a move that seemed out of the ordinary.

It wasn't until weeks later that it was revealed Trump had not traveled to Mildenhall, but rather left the plane via a catering truck and boarded a different government jet due to security concerns, all while maintaining that there were no security issues. The flight from Ankara to Mildenhall proceeded without incident, but the group's curiosity about the president's true intentions persisted.

Upon landing in England, Trump seemingly emerged from another section of the aircraft, and Secret Service agents led the group to the Qatari-provided plane, which was parked nearby. This seemingly staged sequence of events struck the journalist as particularly theatrical. After the transfer, the White House provided journalists with a Truth Social post from Trump showing a photo of service members and their families gathered in front of the Qatari-provided plane, stating that the entire base had requested to see the aircraft.

Trump assured the press that the detour to Mildenhall required minimal deviation from the standard route, but it would be another month before it became clear that he had not traveled with them to the base.