A wave of criticism has emerged in the United States following revelations that senior administration officials and journalists were kept aboard an aircraft serving as a decoy during a security operation designed to protect President Donald Trump from an Iranian assassination threat.
According to reports in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian, the incident occurred in July 2026 as the American delegation departed a NATO summit in Turkey. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained on the aircraft used as a diversion, unaware of their role in the security maneuver.
Former security officials and experts have characterized the decision to leave civilians and senior government officials on a plane believed to face immediate threat as a dangerous precedent. Additional concerns have been raised about potential violations of intelligence community guidelines requiring individuals facing concrete life-threatening danger to be warned.
CNN journalist Jake Tapper noted that "obviously the president's life is paramount, and White Houses in the past have used deception to protect the president's life. But no official I've spoken with has ever heard of using a presidential plane full of White House staff and journalists as a decoy during an immediate threat."
The operation involved secretly moving the president through a food supply truck and hydraulic stairs to a smaller C-32A military aircraft. Meanwhile, passengers on the original presidential plane were instructed to close their window shades without being informed of the president's absence.
President Trump rejected the criticism, stating he followed security services' guidance. Speaking with reporters, he said, "It's entirely up to the Secret Service. I just follow their instructions. So I defer the decision to the Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to fly on a different flight, on a different plane. Same level of security. But they wanted me to do it, so I did it."
Trump addressed the level of danger, saying, "I actually think the plane I flew on was at higher risk. I think it was at higher risk because that's the plane they would be more likely to try to hit." When previously asked by reporters on the plane about closing the windows, he responded, "You're probably on a dangerous flight. But if I go, you go. Right?"
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung defended the security measures, telling ABC News that "as the president recently said, America has many enemies who target him, and we use all means at our disposal to address these threats."
