Secret Service Director Sean Curran said the agency has used decoy aircraft before, following President Donald Trump’s transfer to a second plane during a July trip to Turkey.
“Look, that’s not the first time we’ve done that,” Curran said on CBS News’s 60 Minutes. “We wish that wasn’t reported because that takes some of our tactics away from being able to do something similar again.”
Trump’s departure from Ankara during the NATO summit involved an elaborate security maneuver intended to conceal his movements due to an Iranian assassination threat.
After Trump was filmed boarding the former Air Force One, he was secretly transferred minutes later to a smaller military aircraft, an Air Force C-32A.
The transfer took place inside an airport catering truck typically used to deliver meals and other supplies to aircraft before departure. The larger Boeing 747 continued to serve as a decoy, with members of the media and some White House staff aboard, while the president left on the alternate aircraft. Trump was joined by War Secretary Pete Hegseth and aides Natalie Harp, Dan Scavino, and Walt Nauta.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent flew back from Turkey on the Boeing 747 to preserve the presidential line of succession and were reportedly aware of the operation.
The administration maintained that Trump departed Turkey aboard the former Air Force One, the aircraft he had publicly announced he would use instead of the newer Boeing 747 gifted to the United States by Qatar.
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There have been previous examples of presidents using alternate aircraft for security purposes. During a March 2000 trip to Islamabad, Pakistan, former President Bill Clinton was filmed walking down a red carpet toward a military transport plane. Instead of boarding the military aircraft, Clinton slipped around the front and boarded an unmarked Gulfstream jet parked nearby.
In Trump’s case, however, White House officials continued to maintain that he had departed aboard the larger aircraft, leaving the media out of the loop.