Iran knew Trump’s hotel floor during July Nato summit in Turkey as missile threat emerged
US also spotted man with shoulder-fired weapon near Nato summit
Dubai: Iran knew where US President Donald Trump was staying in Ankara — down to the floor of the building — as American intelligence detected a possible missile threat near the Nato summit, new details have revealed.
US intelligence picked up multiple streams of information as Trump entered the final day of the summit in Turkey on July 8, according to The New York Times, which cited two US officials with knowledge of the threat.
Officials had information about a specific surface-to-air missile threat against Air Force One — meaning whichever aircraft was carrying the president.
At the same time, someone in the vicinity of the Nato summit had been spotted with a shoulder-fired missile, The Times reported.
The security operation has also raised questions in Washington over how much Congress knew about the threat. CNN reported that the Gang of Eight — senior congressional leaders with oversight of the intelligence community — was not briefed about the episode.
The report also said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained aboard the older Air Force One that flew out of Turkey without Trump. Rubio did not respond when CNN asked whether Americans had been put at risk by allowing the aircraft to fly while it was under threat.
Perhaps most disturbing to Trump’s security team was the apparent precision of Iranian intelligence.
The Iranians knew specifically where Trump was staying in Ankara, including which floor of the building he was on, according to the newspaper.
Taken together, the intelligence was considered credible enough to trigger an extraordinary operation to conceal Trump’s movements and secretly get him out of Turkey.
Escape plan takes shape
US officials had only hours to devise an alternative departure.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, played a central role in assessing the threat and deciding how to respond, The Times reported.
The resulting plan turned one of the world’s most recognisable aircraft into a decoy.
Trump publicly boarded the older Air Force One in front of television cameras after saying he would fly aboard the aircraft “for old time’s sake”.
But he did not leave Turkey on it.
According to The Times, Trump was secretly taken off the aircraft, hidden from view in an airport catering container, and transferred to a C-32A, a military version of a Boeing 757.
The smaller aircraft then flew him clandestinely to Britain while the presidential 747 departed separately carrying journalists, White House personnel and senior administration officials.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio knew about the threat and flew aboard the decoy aircraft after helping plan the operation, The Times reported.
Trump put back aboard
The deception continued after the aircraft reached Britain.
Trump’s C-32A landed at RAF Mildenhall before the older Air Force One.
Once the presidential 747 arrived, Trump was secretly driven back to it and boarded through another entrance.
He then emerged from Air Force One in view of reporters, creating the appearance that he had travelled aboard it from Turkey.
Trump confirmed that security officials had instructed him to change aircraft.
“It’s really just up to Secret Service,” he told reporters. “I just follow what they like to do.”
The Secret Service and military wanted him to use another plane “for safety”, Trump said.
Why officials were so concerned
Trump has faced Iranian threats for years, including an Iranian-linked murder-for-hire plot uncovered during the Biden administration.
But the latest disclosures help explain the extraordinary precautions taken in Turkey.
The concern was not simply a general threat against Trump or even against a particular presidential aircraft.
US officials were dealing with intelligence about a possible surface-to-air missile attack, the reported sighting of someone with a shoulder-fired missile near the summit — and indications that Iran knew Trump’s location with remarkable precision.
Within hours, those pieces of intelligence transformed a routine presidential departure into an elaborate deception designed around one overriding objective: Ensuring Iran did not know which aircraft was actually carrying the US president.
