Trump hidden in the Do&Co container: Companions knew nothing about the deception

The truck’s lift, docked to the world’s most famous plane, the old light blue Air Force One, is still up. When empty, the container can accommodate maybe 20, maybe 30 people. Donald Trump doesn’t need that much. You just have to do it quickly, put it in the container and go.

Wherever there is good food – preferably in the form of a juicy burger – the 80-year-old is known to not be far away. A week and a half later, at the World Cup final in New Jersey near New York on July 19th, the US President enjoyed one of these burgers from the Viennese luxury caterer. Does he remember? Does the name mean anything to him?

On July 8, after the end of the NATO summit in Ankara, there was no time for a Do&Co snack on the runway. It is not known whether Trump left Air Force One alone or accompanied by Secret Service officials, hid in the Do&Co car and transferred undetected to a smaller military plane. Company boss Attila Dogudan, who has to smile about the reporting including free advertising and of course about Trump’s unusual hiding place, also says: “No comment. We weren’t involved. It was all as secret as the name Secret Service suggests.”

What had happened?

Shortly before the NATO summit in Ankara, Israel warned Washington of a possible Iranian assassination plot against Trump. Just a day earlier, US attacks on Iran had resumed after negotiations with Tehran to end the war failed.

The Israelis’ warning was apparently so urgent that Trump’s security guards came up with a cinematic deception that Washington Post revealed on Monday. On the way from Turkey via Great Britain back to the USA, the US President secretly changed planes in Ankara – in the Do&Co container.

Just collateral damage?

The “flaw” in the action like something out of a Bond film: According to US media reports, Trump’s fellow travelers, journalists and White House employees, did not know that Trump had been secretly taken away before the presidential plane took off and was flying to Great Britain in a smaller Boeing. If an Iranian missile had hit Air Force One, Trump would have been safe, but his entourage would have been deliberately accepted as collateral damage in order to maintain the deception. The New York Post calls those remaining on board Air Force One “decoys” or “bait” (“they served as a decoy”).

On Tuesday, Trump confirmed the highly unusual action. He refers to the Secret Service: “I do what they say.” He did not inquire further about what exactly the threat was. After all, a man like him gets a lot of threats. Trump: “Any president who makes a difference faces a lot of threats. Presidents who make a difference don’t get any threats.”

Trump traveled to Turkey for the NATO summit on board the new Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar, but announced that he wanted to leave on the old Air Force One “for the sake of old times.” The background is probably, as initially New York Times had reported that the 400 million expensive plane from Qatar was luxuriously equipped, but did not have the same safety equipment and defense technology as the old Air Force One. For example, using lasers to blind incoming missiles.

But the old Air Force One that Trump boarded in Ankara in front of cameras wasn’t safe enough for the Secret Service either. That’s why Trump was placed – hidden from the public and his fellow passengers – into the Do&Co container set up behind the plane and taken to a smaller Boeing C-32A military plane standing nearby.

In this plane, Trump flew to Great Britain with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who boarded the C-32A as normal via an external staircase. There he changed the machines again without anyone noticing. It is unclear how he got from the military plane back to the old Air Force One, got out calmly and in full view of the public and then flew back to Washington in the new Air Force One donated by Qatar – along with his entire entourage.

A journalist reported to the Washington Postthat he had noticed that the window blinds had to remain down during the flight from Ankara to the UK. The fellow passengers did not know that the president was no longer on board.

It was only much later, during the flight home to the USA, that Trump spoke to journalists about the threats from Iran, but did not mention the secret aircraft change. When asked why reporters had been instructed to lower the window blinds on the plane from Turkey, Trump responded, according to a report by the BBC: “Because you’re probably on a dangerous flight – because of the scumbags we’re dealing with.”

His life is constantly threatened and he is “first” on Iran’s “list.” “But if I die, you die too, right?” Trump said, adding: “Maybe one day you’ll want to change careers.”