President Donald Trump secretly flew out of Turkey on a different aircraft while some of his top officials traveled on Air Force One as a decoy, Trump said Tuesday, explaining that the Secret Service and the military demanded the arrangement because of unspecified safety threats.
Trump spoke to reporters after landing at Joint Base Andrews, saying the security agencies wanted him to take a separate flight for equal safety and that he followed their orders. The White House had earlier indicated Trump was aboard Air Force One, but the president had quietly disembarked.
Among the officials who flew on the original Air Force One without Trump were Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent, and Mike Miller, according to reports. The president did not provide details about the nature of the threats that prompted the security decision.