NYT: Trump secretly switched planes after Iran missile threat

A credible Iranian threat involving a possible surface-to-air missile prompted US President Donald Trump to secretly switch aircraft and leave Türkiye following the NATO summit last month, two US officials familiar with the intelligence said, The New York Times reports.

The officials said US intelligence agencies had picked up multiple streams of information, including a specific potential threat involving a shoulder-fired missile near the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8.

They said intelligence indicated that someone in the vicinity of the summit had been seen carrying a shoulder-fired missile and that Iranian operatives knew Trump’s exact location in Ankara, including the floor of the building where he was staying.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing sensitive intelligence related to the threat.

The information was considered sufficiently credible to prompt Trump and senior members of his administration to undertake an extraordinary decoy operation to get him out of Türkiye.

Trump publicly boarded the older Air Force One in front of cameras, saying he would take the aircraft “for old time’s sake.” He then reportedly slipped away in an airport catering container before boarding a military aircraft and leaving the country.

The threat emerged as Trump was preparing to depart Türkiye at the conclusion of the NATO summit. US officials described the operation as an effort to conceal his actual movements from anyone potentially seeking to target him.

Trump has previously been the subject of Iranian assassination plots. He was wounded by a bullet while campaigning in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024 and was later targeted by another armed individual at his Florida golf course. The two incidents were unrelated to the Iranian threats.

Separately, a man was convicted in connection with a murder-for-hire plot targeting Trump that was uncovered by the Biden administration. US authorities said the alleged scheme was directed by Iranians through a proxy force.

By Vafa Guliyeva