X account provided key clue to Trump's secret flight from Turkey, journalist says

An X account specializing in tracking aircraft provided the crucial clue that helped reconstruct the secret operation of U.S. President Donald Trump's departure from Turkey in July, according to one of the journalists involved in the exclusive report.

Dan Lamothe, an author of the investigation published in The Washington Post, highlighted the contribution of the account 'La Nueva Fuerza Aérea 51.' This account monitored the movements of aircraft involved in Trump's exit from Ankara towards the United Kingdom. It detected a U.S. Air Force C-32A plane, with its radar turned off, landing next to the Presidential plane on the night of June 8 at the Mildenhall air base in Suffolk, England.

The report revealed that Trump had publicly boarded the older Air Force One. However, minutes later, he was transferred via a catering truck to a C-32A Air Force plane. This maneuver followed intelligence detecting a credible assassination threat linked to Iran.

The objective was to conceal Trump's location and prevent potential attackers from determining which aircraft he was on. Simultaneously, the appearance was maintained that the president was still aboard the Air Force One, a Boeing 747. This decoy plane continued its route with journalists and White House staff, who were unaware that the president had already disembarked and that their aircraft was serving as a lure.

Lamothe's acknowledgment further confirms that this information was instrumental for The Washington Post in piecing together a maneuver that successfully deceived the journalists traveling with the president for hours. The plan to use the presidential aircraft as a decoy was confirmed to The Post by three administration sources, according to the report.