Donald Trump’s Air Force One deception faces scrutiny over ‘decoy’ passengers

Journalists and others were allowed to fly on presidential jet despite security threat while Trump was spirited away

A catering truck is visible parked on the opposite side of Air Force One on the tarmac after US president Donald Trump boarded the plane following the Nato summit at Ankara International Airport in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Democrats called on Tuesday for a congressional briefing over a stunning charade in which Donald Trump was secretly spirited to a different plane than the one the public and press believed he was travelling on. Critics now question why reporters and the public had been deliberately misled.

When US intelligence allegedly found a credible threat that Iran plotted to kill him last month, Trump left Air Force One in a catering truck, an episode first reported by the Washington Post and also by the New York Times. While the president was reportedly snuck out the side door of the plane, more than a hundred aides, officials and reporters were kept onboard to fly towards Britain, without being told there was a threat to their lives.