President Donald Trump was whisked out of Turkey last month on a military aircraft in an elaborate plot to keep his location secret amid security fears from the war with neighboring Iran, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the plan.

Security Concerns

The Washington Post was first to report the details of the clandestine operation, which included using a catering truck to get the president on the C-32 that flew from Ankara to the Mildenhall air force base in the U.K.

The US official confirmed the accuracy of these details. Trump deplaned the C-32, again secretly, and reboarded the older Air Force One jet to emerge in public view of cameras to eventually walk across the tarmac to the newer Qatari-donated jet, which lacks certain security measures and will soon be further retrofitted.

When reached for comment, White House communications director Steven Cheung did not dispute the Post’s story, which cited material reviewed by the Post, a U.S. official familiar with the operation and another person with knowledge of the president’s travel.

“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” he said. “As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats.”

Previous Precedents

The U.S. government has undertaken decoy missions to protect U.S. presidents before, but their whereabouts were later revealed to the public.

In the hours after the 9/11 attacks, the White House told reporters that President George W. Bush was taken to an “undisclosed location,” later revealing he had been taken to a military facility in Nebraska.

Original reporting: Richardson, TX News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.