CBS: Trump quietly swapped planes in Turkey, leaving cabinet officials on decoy jet
CBS News reports that President Trump secretly switched aircraft in Ankara last month over security concerns, leaving Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent aboard what became a decoy plane. The officials reportedly stayed behind to preserve the line of succession.
According to CBS News, President Donald Trump secretly left the plane believed to be Air Force One in Ankara on 8 July, transferring via a catering truck to a separate military aircraft amid unspecified security concerns.
The original plane, which Trump had boarded together with cabinet members and journalists, kept the "Air Force One" call sign and effectively became a decoy. Remaining aboard were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and communications director Steven Cheung.
Preserving the line of succession
CBS reports that Rubio and Bessent deliberately stayed on the original aircraft to preserve the presidential line of succession in case something happened to Trump. Under that order, Vice-President JD Vance would take over first, followed by the Speaker of the House and the Senate's President Pro Tempore, then the Secretary of State and the Treasury Secretary. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was reportedly aboard the second plane that carried Trump out of Ankara.
Speaking to reporters on Monday night, Trump confirmed the decision to switch flights came from the military and the Secret Service. He did not detail the nature of the threat, saying only that he receives "a lot of threats," adding that any consequential president faces the same.
It remains unclear how much the cabinet officials, other staff and flight crew on the original aircraft knew about the operation. Journalists aboard have said they were unaware they were on a decoy flight.
Such security tactics, known among Secret Service personnel as "shell games," are reportedly routine, with identical presidential limousines and helicopters sometimes swapped during trips. A similar episode occurred in 2000, when President Bill Clinton flew to Islamabad on an unmarked jet following a decoy aircraft, a detail journalist Susan Page disclosed publicly only this week. The White House Correspondents' Association has not commented on the Ankara incident.
