OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:13 PM – Thursday, July 9, 2026
The White House has defended a sudden mid-journey aircraft swap during President Donald Trump’s return from the NATO summit in Turkey, describing the move as a deliberate strategy to counteract foreign threats.
The logistical alteration occurred against a backdrop of escalating hostilities between the United States and Iran, which borders Turkey. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung addressed the controversy by affirming the integrity of the administration’s security measures.
“The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” Cheung said. “As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal, including distraction and misdirection, to address those threats.”
The unexpected logistical switch renewed some Democrat-led scrutiny over the newly commissioned interim presidential aircraft, a Boeing 747-800 gifted to the United States by the Qatari royal family.
Trump had arrived at the summit in Ankara aboard the newly retrofitted jet, which sports a red, white, navy blue, and gold livery. However, for his departure from Turkey, the president boarded a legacy Boeing VC-25A — the baby-blue-and-white aircraft that has served the executive branch for three and a half decades.
The Qatari-gifted aircraft departed Ankara ahead of the president, flying directly to Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom (UK), where Trump later rendezvoused with it to complete his journey back to Washington.
In a social media post published during the trip, Trump stated that he chose to fly the first leg of the trip on the legacy jet “for old time’s sake,” while routing the new plane to the British military base for a public relations opportunity.
“We just landed and met up with our new Air Force One, which was sent earlier to RAF Mildenhall, so we could show the wonderful Servicemembers, as per the entire Base’s request,” Trump wrote. “They were very excited.”
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