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The Secret Service urged President Donald Trump to fly out of Turkey on the old Air Force One instead of the newly retrofitted Qatari-gifted plane out of an abundance of caution amid the escalation with Iran, multiple sources familiar with the plans told News.
The Qatari-gifted plane left the NATO summit in Turkey earlier in the day for Mildenhall Air Force Base in England, a move Trump claimed Wednesday morning was for members of the military to tour the aircraft.
While Trump has said the change in plane had nothing to do with security concerns, he also reiterated, when asked by reporters if security concerns caused the change in flight plans, that he’s “No. 1 on the kill list for Iran.”
The change in plans was not prompted by a specific threat, but influenced in part by differences in the plane security capabilities, two U.S. officials told News.
The New York Times first reported on the Secret Service recommendation. The White House did not immediately respond to News’ request for comment. The Secret Service has not yet commented.
When the president ultimately left Turkey in the old Air Force One to link up with the new plane in England, passengers on the aircraft were instructed to keep their windows down during the flight, and according to flight data, the plane carrying the president did not turn on its tracker until it was over the Black Sea near Istanbul.
Despite continuing to insist there was no security issue that prompted him to change planes for his Turkey departure, Trump suggested that the passengers may have been asked to keep their window shades down because they were “probably on a dangerous flight.”
“Well, yeah, because you’re, you know, probably on a dangerous flight, because of the sleaze bags that we have to deal with,” Trump said, referring to Iran.
While the administration insists that the newly acquired plane meets the safety and security requirements necessary to fly the president, the speed of the retrofitting, which took about one year, has raised questions about whether the Qatari-gifted plane boasts the same defensive security measures as the old plane.
Many of the details of the retrofitting on the new plane are considered classified.
On Tuesday, a group of Senate Democrats sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Troy Meink demanding transparency into the project from the Air Force and L3Harris, claiming the administration is ignoring national security concerns so in service of delivering Trump a “fancy plane for his personal enjoyment.”
Trump took his first trip in the newly retrofitted plane last week on a trip to North Dakota.
Before the first trip, the U.S. Air Force had been modifying the jet in Texas since September to meet the security, communications and other needs to transport the president. The Air Force had estimated it would cost less than $400 million to retrofit the gift.
The plane is to be used as the new Air Force One until shortly before Trump leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement have told News.
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