Why Did Trump Abandon His New Air Force One in Turkey?

President Trump on Wednesday abruptly announced that he would fly an older Boeing 747 from Turkey to England, not the Qatar-donated presidential jet that has become his new Air Force One.Mr. Trump, who this week traveled to Ankara to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, was asked about the decision to take the old plane but mused mostly about the threat of assassination.“I’d like you to address speculation that you are leaving Ankara, not in the new Air Force One, because of security concerns involving Iran,” a New York Times reporter asked the president during an afternoon press conference. “You’ve spoken today twice about them possibly assassinating you and possibly being successful. Did that concern have something to do with it?”“Well, I speak about it a lot, because, you know, the life of a president is very dangerous. It’s 5.2 percent,” he said, presumably referring to the chance of death while in office. “You know what a race car driver is: one-tenth of 1 percent. A bull rider, that looks pretty dangerous to me: It’s one-tenth of one percent.”“It’s a very dangerous profession. No, I’m number one on the kill list for Iran. They’re lovely people. I’m number one. So, I don’t know, I can’t tell you that, but I don’t really care, because I’m doing my job, and I’m doing it, I hope, better than anybody’s ever done it,” he said.Another Times reporter followed up, saying, “But why aren’t you flying on the new Air Force One home?”“Well, it’s flying to Europe to one of the big bases, two or three of the big bases, where we can show it to the people, and we’ll be going home by normal methods. But we have it going to Europe to a couple of bases, actually one in particular, but it’s going to go to a couple of bases and stop so the soldiers can see it because it’s truly magnificent,” he said.Mr. Trump later made the announcement on Truth Social, framing the decision as a tribute to American service members.“To honor our brave men and women of the military, we are sending the brand new, and truly spectacular, Air Force One to Mildenhall Air Force Base, in the United Kingdom, to give them a chance to tour the aircraft – everybody is so excited, and we thought that they should be the first,” Mr. Trump wrote.“For old time’s sake, we’ll be taking the former Air Force One from Turkey to Mildenhall, a short trip that is totally worth doing in order to give our great military heroes a chance to appreciate our beautiful new addition to the Air Force fleet!” he wrote.Yet the abrupt announcement prompted speculation about whether the abandonment of the new jet was related to potential security vulnerabilities compared to the aircraft it replaced, though no official explanation beyond the tribute rationale has been provided.General Robert Adams, though, said on ABC News that the Ankara airport is not particularly safe and speculated that Mr. Trump may have decided to take the old Air Force One, perhaps because it has better capabilities.“I think it largely has to do with lack of, or maybe not top-level, security and ability to secure Air Force One on the ground in Ankara,” the general said. “Oftentimes we think of standoff just from a human being perspective, prevent, you know, some terrorists from throwing a grenade or shooting an RPG at Air Force One. But threats today are much more sophisticated: electromagnetic threats, optical threats, infrared threats — there are all sorts of threats, and standoff from those threats is difficult, especially in and around that airport.”“I’ve flown in and out of there, and it was probably a concern, so it had to be significant enough, I think, in this case, for President Trump to agree to not fly out on it. As we know, he’s very proud of that new plane, and so it must have been something significant.”The new plane, a Boeing 747-B replaced a Boeing 747-200 completed in 1990 that had served six presidents, beginning with George H. W. Bush. The newer aircraft required significant additional work to meet the technical and security standards required to serve as Air Force One.The jet has drawn bipartisan scrutiny since the Qatari royal family donated it, valued at approximately $400 million, in May 2025. Democrats have characterized the gift as an unconstitutional emolument — a term for prohibited payments or gifts from foreign governments — while Mr. Trump directed the Defense Department to accept and refurbish it for presidential use.Reporters who toured the plane described a lavish interior featuring light tan leather seats, wooden paneling, and gold accents throughout. The aircraft includes a sizable conference room with leather captain’s chairs arranged around a square desk (wouldn’t it be a table in a conference room?), a large television, and plush carpeting with presidential seal seat belts.

Why Did Trump Abandon His New Air Force One in Turkey?

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