A startling revelation has emerged from US media detailing a carefully orchestrated secret security operation during former US President Donald Trump’s visit to Turkey last month, which saw two of his top cabinet officials unwittingly remain on a decoy aircraft while Trump slipped away on a separate plane. According to a report from CBS News, a partner of the BBC in the United States, the elaborate ruse was launched over heightened security threats linked to Iran. The operation, which unfolded on July 8, started as expected: Trump entered the aircraft widely assumed to be Air Force One alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, members of the White House staff, and the press pool. But what looked like a routine departure was actually a carefully planned diversion. Instead of staying on board, Trump secretly exited the aircraft via a catering truck, which transported him covertly to a pre-positioned military aircraft that would carry him to his destination. The term “Air Force One” is technically a call sign assigned to any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the sitting US president, and in this unusual scenario, the original aircraft retained the call sign even after Trump left, cementing its role as a working decoy. CBS sources have confirmed that the decision to leave Rubio and Bessent on the decoy plane was not a random choice, but a deliberate move to preserve the constitutional line of presidential succession. Under US law, if the sitting president were to die or become incapacitated while in office, power transfers first to Vice President JD Vance, followed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, then the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Secretary of State, and finally the Secretary of the Treasury. By leaving the fourth and fifth in the line of succession on the decoy craft, administration officials ensured that even if the plane carrying Trump were attacked or suffered a catastrophic incident, the chain of presidential authority would remain unbroken. Alongside the two top cabinet secretaries, two other senior White House officials also remained on the decoy plane: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. As of this report, the White House has not yet issued an official statement on the disclosure, and the BBC confirmed it has reached out to White House press officials to request comment on the incident. The unpublicized operation has drawn attention to the intense security protocols that surround US presidential travel, particularly during visits to regions where threats from state and non-state actors remain elevated.
Members of Trump’s cabinet remained on decoy plane, after Trump’s quiet exit
