By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-08-12 17:53:22 | Updated at 2026-08-12 23:34:14
7 hours ago
President Donald Trump said Tuesday night he was following the Secret Service’s plan when he secretly swapped planes in Ankara, Turkey, last month for a flight to the United Kingdom amid a threat posed by Iran.
On the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday night, a reporter asked Trump why a catering truck transported him from the legacy Air Force One to a C-32A in Ankara, out of view of reporters and the public.
The press believed they were flying with the president aboard Air Force One, when in reality they were not.
“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,” he said. “They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane—equal safety—but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say.”
Another reporter followed up, asking what the nature of the threat was.
“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats,” he responded.
President Trump: I Get a Lot of Threats Because I May be the Most Consequential President Ever
The Washington Post reported Monday night that the swap came amid a “credible threat” from Iran, which shares a border with Turkey. When asked why it was not too dangerous for reporters to fly on Air Force One on the flight out of Ankara, Trump said he believes the flight he took was actually more dangerous.
“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk. I think it was at greater risk. That would be the plane I think… that they would be more likely to go for,” he said.
He also said he was not surprised the Secret Service told him to take the secret flight.
“I have a lot of threats. I have a lot of threats that you don’t know about,” he said. “Any consequential president has a lot of threats. Non-consequential presidents don’t get threatened, and I think that I may be the most consequential. Nobody’s done more than me in a period of almost six years. There’s nobody.”
