Trump's Air Force One Shell Game: How Years of Decoy Tactics Led to a Catering-Truck Switch

President Donald Trump's clandestine departure from Ankara, Turkey, last month — secretly slipping off the plane he was seen boarding — was an extraordinary security maneuver. However, the playbook for disguising his movements aboard Air Force One dates back years. Trump himself has long talked about the brilliance of the bait-and-switching during his first term.

A History of Deception

Trump's Dec. 26, 2018, surprise Christmas trip to U.S. troops in Iraq featured a darkened Air Force One, closed window shades, and an unusual military call sign intended to obscure the presidential jet's movement. That operation was ultimately pierced by a British plane spotter, prompting the White House to go considerably further the following year. They left one presidential 747 parked conspicuously in Florida while Trump secretly flew another to Afghanistan.

The Ankara Operation

The history gives fresh context to reports detailing an even more elaborate deception on July 8, when Trump left a NATO summit in Ankara amid what U.S. officials described as a credible Iranian threat against the president or his aircraft. Trump publicly boarded the legacy blue-and-white Air Force One before secretly exiting through another door into an airport catering truck and transferring to an Air Force C-32A, a modified Boeing 757. The larger presidential jet then departed with journalists and some White House staff aboard, with the assumption that Trump was traveling with them.

Trump's Response

"Well, it's only up to the Secret Service; I just follow what they'd like to do," Trump told reporters Tuesday night after traveling to Geneva, Ohio, for the Freedom 250 Patriot Games. "So I go by the Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety – but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say."

The Shell Game

The call sign Air Force One (AF1) changes to wherever the president is purportedly traveling, but the decoy operations are a shell game to keep U.S. enemies in the dark. The July 8 legacy 747 used the "AF1" call sign in flight despite Trump actually traveling aboard the C-32A under the comparatively nondescript "RCH18" designation, according to reported flight-tracking data. Reporters were instructed to keep their window shades closed — a detail that harkens back to Trump's regaling campaign rally crowds about the Christmas night 2018 Iraq trip and another November 2019 surprise trek to have Thanksgiving dinner with troops in Afghanistan.

Setting the Cover Story

Trump himself helped set the cover story last month. Before leaving Ankara, he announced that he would use the "former Air Force One" for part of the trip home "for old time’s sake," while the newer Boeing 747-8 provided by Qatar would fly ahead to RAF Mildenhall in Britain so U.S. service members could see it. Television cameras then captured Trump climbing the stairs of the older jet and waving before disappearing inside. Minutes later, according to reports, a hydraulically raised catering truck pulled up to a door on the opposite side of the aircraft. Trump and several aides entered the truck out of sight of most of the traveling party and were driven across the tarmac to the C-32A.

The Switch

War Secretary Pete Hegseth boarded the smaller plane separately, helping make its presence appear routine. "I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk," Trump told reporters on the tarmac Tuesday night after the news of the switch was leaked. "I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for." Trump flew aboard the C-32A to RAF Mildenhall. The smaller plane arrived shortly before the legacy Air Force One, and Trump apparently transferred back to the larger aircraft out of view before descending its stairs in front of cameras — preserving the appearance that he had been on it all along.

Threats and Precautions

The White House has not directly confirmed the details of the shell game maneuvers, but communications director Steven Cheung said the administration uses all available means to confront threats against the president, while the Secret Service declined to discuss the operation to multiple outlets. The elaborate ruse was set in motion after intelligence pointed to a specific danger involving Iran, which Trump acknowledged in the subsequent Air Force One press gaggle, hinting at the danger after reaching Britain. Asked aboard the flight home about the threat, he told reporters, "I have a threat all the time. I’m No. 1 on their list."

A Pattern of Secrecy

The tactic was unusually elaborate, but keeping a presidential war-zone flight hidden — right down to manipulating what observers can see, hear, and track — was familiar territory for Trump and his security team. On Christmas night in 2018, Trump and first lady Melania Trump quietly left Washington aboard one of the two Boeing VC-25 aircraft normally used as Air Force One for an unannounced visit to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. The flight was conducted under tight secrecy as Trump made his first trip as president to troops in a combat zone.

Past Operations

The aircraft did not advertise itself in the usual way, according to reports. Aviation enthusiasts identified the blue-and-white VC-25 flying over Britain under the call sign RCH358 rather than the familiar Air Force One designation. British aviation enthusiast Alan Meloy photographed the aircraft over South Yorkshire, and online aircraft trackers began piecing together its route from Joint Base Andrews toward the Middle East. The attempt at secrecy began to unravel hours before the White House publicly disclosed Trump's whereabouts.

Evolution of Deception

The newly disclosed Ankara operation appears to have taken the concept of deception to another level. Instead of merely leaving one presidential aircraft behind while Trump departed secretly on another, officials reportedly had Trump climb aboard the apparent presidential flight in public, slip away unseen, and send the conspicuous jet onward with reporters and staff still believing he was aboard. The C-32A carrying Trump was made harder to follow electronically.

Precedent and Controversy

There is precedent beyond Trump as well. The Washington Post reported that President Bill Clinton used a decoy during a high-risk 2000 trip to Pakistan, sending a recognizable presidential aircraft ahead while Clinton arrived on an unmarked jet. Unlike the Ankara operation, however, at least one representative of the traveling press corps had been briefed privately in advance about the deception and the risks surrounding the flight. The distinction has become part of the controversy surrounding Trump’s July flight. Journalists aboard the legacy Air Force One did not know it was serving as the decoy or that the president had already moved to another aircraft.