By Emily Giles, Elwely Elwelly and Melory Ghazi
DUBAI, Aug 13 (Reuters) – Iran’s state media has mocked U.S. President Donald Trump after new details emerged about his secret aircraft switch during a visit to Turkey, saying it showed just how nervous he is about the Islamic Republic’s power.
“Again, Trump, with his new scandal, has become the top subject in the U.S. media these days. A scandal stemming from fear of Iran’s military power, a power that caused Trump, last month, while returning from Turkey, to secretly switch his plane,” said a presenter on state television, adding that the episode has become a source of “humiliation” for Trump.
A threat that Air Force One could be targeted by a shoulder-fired missile prompted the Secret Service to secretly move Trump onto a smaller government jet, a person briefed on the matter said.
The threat emerged on the final day of Trump’s visit to Ankara for the NATO summit, the source said, as tensions run high due to the ongoing U.S. war on Iran. The Secret Service deemed the threat to be credible and imminent, prompting an extraordinary operation to conceal the U.S. president’s movements.
The New York Times reported that U.S. officials were alarmed to discover that Iranians knew where Trump was staying in Ankara, including the exact floor of his hotel.
Tehran has not officially commented on the allegations, or on the airplane switch. The White House could not be immediately reached out of working hours.
Billboards and murals around Tehran take aim at the U.S. president and Israel, showing images from Trump lying in a coffin to drowning in the sea.
While the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei last month pledged vengeance for the death of his father and predecessor, who was killed on the first day of the war.
HIDDEN IN A FOOD TRUCK
Trump and a small group of aides used a catering truck to switch from the big blue-and-white presidential aircraft to a smaller, nondescript C-32A jet for the flight out of Turkey on July 8, while Air Force One departed separately carrying senior administration officials, White House staff and the travelling press corps, according to the first source.
Iran’s embassy in South Africa said in a post on X that Trump “will be hidden in a trash can before long”. It was accompanied by a meme picture of Trump inside a catering box full of food.
That X account often goes viral for the social media memes it shares, which Iranian state media have reported. It is listed on the official website page of the embassy.
The Washington Post first reported details of the plane-switch operation.
TEHRAN DENIED PREVIOUS ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT CLAIMS
In 2024, the U.S. Justice Department charged an Iranian man in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to assassinate Trump, then U.S. president-elect.
Tehran denied those accusations in September 2024.
“Iranian hardliners, who have been talking about taking revenge for the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader on February 28, as well as some other senior political and military officials in Iran are basking in the fact that the United States was so afraid and concerned about President Trump’s safety and security,” said Ali Vaez, deputy program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group.
Iran and the United States remain at loggerheads over efforts to agree a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source, who said there had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June.
During a podcast on Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, commentator Alireza Majidi recounted a 2018 visit by Trump to the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq, a country where Iran enjoys support from armed groups.
Trump himself described the extraordinary security measures he had to go through on that trip.
“If you had seen what we had to go through with the darkened plane, with all windows closed, with no lights on whatsoever anywhere. Pitch black. I have never seen anything like it,” CNN quoted Trump as speaking to reporters at the base in Iraq.
(Writing by Emily Giles; Editing by Michael Georgy, Sharon Singleton)
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