The revelation that President Donald Trump was secretly transferred from Air Force One to a smaller military aircraft via an airport catering truck last month—after U.S. intelligence detected a credible Iranian threat targeting the president or his aircraft—has drawn attention to a long but little-known history of presidential deception.
The elaborate ruse involved Trump boarding the presidential jet in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8 in front of television cameras, then being discreetly shuttled by a catering truck to an adjacent Air Force C-32A military aircraft. The primary Air Force One departed carrying journalists, support staff, and White House officials who were kept unaware that the president was no longer on board. Press members were instructed to keep their window shades closed during the flight. The smaller C-32A carrying Trump landed at RAF Mildenhall in Britain minutes before the decoy jet arrived.
Trump later confirmed the switch, stating: “I go by Secret Service and the military. They wanted me to go in a different flight, different plane. I just have to do what they say”.
While the operation involving a catering truck was extraordinary, deception has long been a cornerstone of presidential protection. Here are six other notable times commanders-in-chief went dark to evade threats.
1. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1943): The Covert Crossing
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt needed to travel to Tehran for the “Big Three” conference with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin during World War II, he employed a classic deception tactic. On November 12, 1943, Roosevelt boarded the battleship USS Iowa from the presidential yacht USS Potomac at the mouth of the Potomac River. The yacht had been used to move him down the river, leaving potential attackers and observers unaware of his true location. The battleship then carried him across the Atlantic on a top-secret mission to the Tehran Conference. The voyage was so secret that even the crew of an escorting destroyer was kept in the dark—and nearly fired a live torpedo at the Iowa.
2. Bill Clinton (2000): The Decoy That Fooled al-Qaeda
In March 2000, President Bill Clinton traveled from India to Pakistan at the end of a South Asia tour. At Mumbai airport, Clinton appeared to board a large U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft. Instead, he walked around its nose and boarded an unmarked Gulfstream executive jet.
A separate aircraft carrying U.S. markings and an American flag continued to Pakistan as a decoy. The marked aircraft landed first in Islamabad, and a Secret Service officer who reportedly resembled Clinton emerged from the plane, creating the impression that the president had arrived. The unmarked aircraft then landed, and the president disembarked.
Historian Taylor Branch later revealed that intelligence had indicated al-Qaeda marksmen were positioned in Islamabad to assassinate Clinton. Crucially, at least one member of Clinton’s travelling press corps knew about the deception—a detail that distinguishes it from Trump’s operation, where journalists were kept entirely in the dark.
3. George W. Bush (2003): The Plastic Turkey and the Baghdad Surprise
The White House claimed President George W. Bush would spend Thanksgiving in Texas in 2003. Instead, he arrived in Baghdad to visit U.S. troops, eight months after the invasion of Iraq.
Bush and his senior staff flew from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, via Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews. From there, Bush transitioned to an Air Force VC-25A for the trip to Baghdad. A flight plan was filed to mask the fact that the aircraft would be carrying the president. In Baghdad, U.S. military personnel were told only of an impending arrival of a VIP.
The secrecy was so tight that when Bush was photographed holding a cooked turkey among troops, reports later suggested the turkey may have been a prop—a plastic decoration—to maintain the cover story. The trip stunned Americans settling in for their Thanksgiving celebrations.
4. Barack Obama (2010): The Night Flight to Kabul
President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan in 2010, his first as commander-in-chief. He was covertly flown out of the United States with few individuals knowing he had left.
Obama made the 13-hour non-stop secret flight from Washington to Afghanistan, arriving at Bagram Air Base at approximately 8:30 p.m. local time. The trip, which occurred entirely at night, was shrouded in secrecy until his arrival. He delivered a speech to troops in a cavernous tent known as the “clam shell” before departing. The operation demonstrated the lengths to which the Secret Service and military will go to protect a president visiting a war zone.
5. Donald Trump (2019): The Thanksgiving Decoy
Trump himself made a secret Thanksgiving Day trip to Afghanistan in 2019. A separate press pool and a decoy plane were kept in Florida while he visited Bagram Air Base. The trip was kept under wraps until after his safe return. The operation was similar in structure to Bush’s 2003 Baghdad visit—a surprise holiday trip to boost troop morale in a combat zone.
6. Joe Biden (2023): The Overnight Train to Kyiv
In February 2023, President Joe Biden made a clandestine visit to war-torn Ukraine. He flew to Poland with a schedule that had several large gaps, during which he took a 10-hour overnight train ride to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Rather than traveling via Air Force One, he took Ukraine’s state train service from the Polish border, 400 miles east.
The press pool was reduced to just one reporter and one photographer, both of whom were aware of the deception but had been asked not to report it in real time. Biden’s bodyguards had warned that they could not guarantee his safety. He arrived in Kyiv at 8 a.m. Monday. The visit was kept in near-total secrecy, with the president huddled aboard an anonymous train accompanied by a skeleton team of advisers and armed Secret Service agents.
The ‘Shell Game’ of Presidential Protection
The decision to conceal a president’s movements is almost always driven by a specific, credible threat. In Trump’s 2026 case, U.S. intelligence had detected an Iranian plot targeting the president or his aircraft. In Clinton’s case, al-Qaeda marksmen were reportedly positioned in Islamabad.
According to former senior Secret Service agent Robert McDonald, presidential protection often relies on creating uncertainty over which vehicle, helicopter, or aircraft is actually carrying the president. “It’s what we call a shell game,” McDonald said.
Presidential motorcades often include two versions of the heavily protected limousine known as “The Beast”—one carrying the president, the other serving as a decoy. Similarly, Marine One routinely flies in groups of three, changing positions to confuse potential attackers.
Why the Secrecy?
The Trump operation was unusual in one significant respect: journalists assigned to accompany the president were deliberately kept unaware of his actual location and unknowingly traveled aboard the decoy aircraft. In previous operations, the press pool was typically briefed and asked to withhold reporting until the president was safe.
Nevertheless, as Ronald Kessler, an author who has written extensively on the Secret Service, told the BBC: “There’s a long history of strategies to mislead anybody who might be trying to harm the president”.
When asked later by reporters why they had to keep their shades shut during the flight, Trump said it was because they were “probably on a dangerous flight.” He went on to say: “But if I go, you go. Right?”
