Military experts have stated that former President Donald Trump faced a genuine risk of assassination during his trip to Turkey last month, citing intelligence reports of an Iranian plot to kill him. The security concerns led to an elaborate operation on July 8, following the NATO summit in Ankara, where Trump was reportedly smuggled off Air Force One and onto a military jet via a catering truck.
While the CIA reportedly viewed the intelligence as having low confidence and not originating from US sources, the Secret Service proceeded with extreme caution. This decision was influenced by previous security incidents involving the former president. According to reports, US officials were also alerted to Iranian knowledge of Trump's hotel location and his specific floor.
The covert maneuver involved Trump, along with a small inner circle including executive assistant Natalie Harp and director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta, entering a catering truck on the tarmac. The group was then lowered and transported to a waiting C-32A military jet, while journalists and some White House staff believed Trump remained on the presidential jumbo jet. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, top advisor Stephen Miller, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, and Ambassador Monica Crowley later departed on the original Air Force One.
Jonathan Hackett, a retired US Marine Corps interrogator, counterintelligence agent, and special operations capabilities specialist, told the Daily Mail that Iran has been developing assassination plans against Trump since 2018. He noted that Turkey could be a permissive environment for such an operation, especially with Hakan Fidan, the former director of Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation and an individual with reported past ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), now serving as foreign minister.
Philip Ingram, an ex-Army intelligence officer, echoed the possibility of an assassination attempt, stating that even if specific intelligence is not deemed credible, the overall threat remains. He described the potential implications of a successful assassination attempt as "unthinkable," suggesting a diplomatic response, sanctions, and possibly a conventional military response, while ruling out nuclear options unless in a mutually assured destruction scenario.
Iran's state media has reacted to the reports by mocking Trump, portraying the incident as evidence of his fear of Iran's military power and a source of humiliation. Billboards and murals in Tehran have also targeted the US president. The Iranian embassy in South Africa posted on X that Trump "will be hidden in a trash can before long," accompanied by a meme of Trump in a catering box.
Despite the Secret Service's actions, some US officials have suggested that Israel's sharing of the warning might have been intended to influence Trump's political decisions regarding Iran, Turkey, and the Middle East. Concerns have also been raised by Democrats, such as Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who questioned the verifiability of the Israeli intelligence and described the situation as "fantastical."
This incident follows a 2024 US Justice Department charge against an Iranian man in connection with an alleged IRGC plot to assassinate Trump before his presidency, a claim Tehran denied. Trump himself recounted extraordinary security measures during a 2018 visit to an airbase in Iraq, describing a flight in pitch darkness with all windows closed and no lights on.