Rubio, Bessent flew decoy plane from Turkey; Hegseth joined Trump on secret military flight

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent returned from Turkey on a decoy plane amid a threat attributed to Iran, while Secretary of War Pete Hegseth accompanied President Donald Trump on a secret military flight, CBS revealed. Rubio and Bessent traveled on the aircraft publicly identified as Air Force One, though it did not carry the president. They were aware of a secret plan for Trump to switch aircraft upon his return from the NATO summit in Ankara last July, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by CBS.

Besides Hegseth, White House advisors Natalie Harp, Walt Nauta, and Dan Scavino also accompanied Trump. The U.S. president used a new presidential aircraft donated by Qatar to travel to Turkey. However, upon his return, he announced he would travel on the old Air Force One "for old times' sake," without mentioning security reasons. The Washington Post reported this week that the president had first boarded the presidential plane but was then secretly transported in a catering truck to another secret military aircraft due to the possibility of an attack by Iran, which has been at war with the United States since February.

Trump stated Tuesday that he merely followed the Secret Service's recommendation regarding the controversy of using the presidential plane with press and White House staff aboard as a decoy. "Any important president receives many threats. Presidents who are not important do not receive threats. And I think I am the one who gets the most. Nobody has done more than me in almost six years," the president justified when asked why journalists were on the decoy plane. Some of those journalists confirmed Tuesday that they were unaware of the maneuver and received unusual instructions during the flight to keep their windows down. The U.S. president typically travels with a team of reporters, known as the White House "pool," who document his movements. In 2000, a similar maneuver was carried out with Bill Clinton, although the media members were informed of the operation in real-time.