WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump took the old Air Force One for part of his return from the NATO summit in Turkey instead of his newly retrofitted plane gifted by Qatar as a security precaution amid renewed hostilities between the United States and Iran, according to a source familiar with the decision.
The unexpected swap of aircrafts came after Trump used the controversial, Qatar-gifted plane to travel to Ankara for the two-day summit. But as the U.S. traded strikes with Iran, the Secret Service urged the White House to fly on the old plane to leave Turkey, the source told USA TODAY, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.
Trump, White House officials and the traveling press corps flew the old Boeing 747-200 Air Force One, painted baby blue, from Turkey to the Royal Air Force Mildenhall U.S. Air Force Base in Suffolk, England. There, Trump and the crew switched back to the new red, white and blue plane, a Boeing 747-B, which they flew across the Atlantic before landing at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington early on July 9.