Donald Trump will fly from Turkey to England onboard the older Air Force One, rather than the new, Qatari-gifted aircraft he used to travel to Turkey, an unexpected change in plans that prompted questions about security fears.
Trump first announced the change in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, where he said that “to honor our brave men and women of the Military, we are sending the brand new, and truly spectacular, Air Force One to Mildenhall Air Force Base, in the United Kingdom, to give them a chance to tour the Aircraft”.
He added that “for old time’s sake, we’ll be taking the former Air Force One, from Turkey to Mildenhall, a short trip that is totally worth doing in order to give our Great Military Heroes a chance to appreciate our beautiful new addition to the Air Force Fleet!”.
Trump had flown to Turkey onboard the new $400m aircraft, which was given to the US as a gift last year by the Qatari government, marking its first international trip. And so the shift in plans to fly the older jet drew questions during a news conference at the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey, where Trump was asked why he was not returning onboard the new plane.
One reporter asked the president to “address speculation that you’re leaving Ankara not in the new Air Force One because of security concerns involving Iran”, noting that: “You’ve spoken today twice about them possibly assassinating you and possibly being successful.”
Trump did not address the part about the aircraft, but on the possible Iranian assassination attempts, he said: “I speak about it a lot because the life of a president is very dangerous.
“I’m number one on the kill list for Iran,” he added.
Shortly after, another reporter asked: “But why aren’t you flying the new plane?” to which Trump responded: “It’s flying to Europe to one of the big bases, two or three of the big bases, where we can show it to the people, and we’ll be going home by normal methods, but we have it going to Europe, to a couple of bases, actually one in particular, but it’s going to go to a couple of bases so the soldiers can see it because it’s truly magnificent.”
The Trump administration drew criticism last year when it confirmed that it had accepted the controversial gift of a Boeing 747 jetliner from Qatar, with lawmakers voicing concerns about security and conflicts of interest.
The itinerary change came as Trump, when discussing Iran, told reporters on Wednesday that “they want to take out the US leader, me, I’m on every list”.
“I’m on every single one of their lists, and so far I guess I’ve been a little bit lucky, but that maybe doesn’t last very long, because that’s the way it goes,” Trump added.
The plane switch also came as Trump declared that the ceasefire with Iran was over as he arrived at the Nato summit in Turkey, and as this week, the US launched strikes on more than 80 Iranian targets, according to the US Central Command, and imposed sanctions on Iranian oil sales.