The US intelligence services had « low confidence » in Israeli reports of an Iranian plan to assassinate Donald Trump on his July trip to Turkey. Despite these reservations, the Secret Service has organized an exceptional operation to conceal the departure of the US President of Ankara. This discrepancy between the intelligence assessment and the protective measures taken around the head of state now raises questions in Washington about the credibility of the Israeli alert and its possible influence on American decisions.
The CIA had doubts about the credibility of an Iranian threat against Donald Trump that had led the US services to organize his clandestine departure from Turkey. The news, revealed Wednesday, August 12, by the American press, sheds new light on a security operation that has remained secret for more than a month.
The alert had been transmitted to the United States by the Israeli government. She mentioned a possible Iranian project aimed at the US President during his visit to Ankara for a NATO summit on 8 July 2026.
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However, CIA analysts did not consider the information received as sufficiently convincing. They made their reservations known to the Trump administration. An American official quoted by the press described this information as coming from Israel, not from the American services, with a level of confidence deemed low.
These reservations did not prevent the Secret Service from retaining the most prudent scenario. Donald Trump left Ankara on a different military aircraft than the one in which journalists and members of his administration thought he was travelling.
Iran’s threat against Trump judged to be insecure
The new point therefore concerns less the existence of the operation than the previous assessment. The first revelations presented the change of aircraft as the response to an Iranian threat sufficiently serious to justify exceptional measures.
The information published on 12 August shows a more complex situation. Some US intelligence officials doubted the imminent and robust nature of the threat.
The CIA had received information from the Israeli government. His analysts had not produced them themselves and had not obtained enough evidence to give them a high level of confidence.
This distinction is important in the operation of intelligence. Information may be taken into account by security officials without being considered as confirmed. In the case of an American president, the potential consequences of an error also lead the protection services to take maximum precautions.
The White House did not respond directly to questions about the quality of the information received and its assessment by U.S. agencies. One American official recalled that Donald Trump had been subjected to several threats and that all necessary measures were taken to ensure his safety.
The CIA did not publicly comment on the information on his assessment. The Israeli embassy in Washington had also failed to provide details of the information transmitted.
A false departure aboard Air Force One
The alert resulted in an unusual operation on 8 July at Ankara airport.
Donald Trump had joined Turkey on the Boeing 747-8 offered by Qatar to the United States and recently adapted for presidential transport. However, questions existed about the protective devices of this aircraft compared to traditional presidential aircraft.
Donald Trump had announced his departure that he would use the former Air Force One. In front of the cameras, the president actually boarded the blue and white Boeing 747.
But he did not leave Turkey on that plane.
A few minutes after his boarding, Donald Trump and several collaborators quietly left the aircraft by another door. They boarded an airport catering truck whose platform had been raised to aircraft level.
The vehicle then drove them to a nearby US Air Force C-32A. This aircraft, a military version of the Boeing 757, is regularly used to transport senior American officials.
Donald Trump joined the C-32A with a small group of collaborators. The aircraft took off for the British RAF Mildenhall base under escort from F-16 fighters.
Meanwhile, journalists, American officials and White House staff took places in the former Air Force One. Some did not know that the president had changed aircraft. Journalists in the press booth had been ordered to keep the blinds closed.
The former presidential plane was used as a decoy.
U.S. officials stayed on the lure plane
The operation takes on an additional dimension with the identity of the people who accompanied Donald Trump.
These included Dan Scavino, Deputy Chief of Staff of the White House, Natalie Harp, Executive Assistant to the President, and Walt Nauta, Director of Operations of the Oval Office. Some less well-known collaborators were also involved in the transfer.
On the other hand, several senior administrative officials did not accompany the President in the C-32A.
State Secretary Marco Rubio was one of the officials who remained on the former Air Force One. According to information published on Wednesday, however, he was informed of both the Israeli alert and the arrangements prepared by the Secret Service.
This situation fuels questions about the level of danger actually attributed to the presidential aircraft. If an Iranian attack on Donald Trump or his aircraft had been considered imminent, the presence of major officials on the lure would have been a major risk.
A familiar US official in the security talks also put the threat into perspective by recalling the extent of the Turkish arrangement around the NATO summit. Tens of thousands of members of the Turkish security forces had been mobilized.
The Secret Service, however, reasoned according to another logic: eliminate as much as possible the risk directly affecting the President.
Donald Trump says he followed the Secret Service
Donald Trump publicly confirmed the change of aircraft on Tuesday, August 11, after the first revelations on the operation.
The Chair explained that he had followed the recommendations of the Secret Service and the military. According to him, those responsible for his protection simply wanted him to use another device.
He also stated that he did not ask for much detail on the threat.
His statements confirm that the operational decision came primarily from his security services. However, it is not clear what information was presented to the President prior to his departure from Ankara.
Donald Trump also minimized the risk of journalists and officials remaining in the former Air Force One. He considered that the smaller aircraft in which he was travelling would probably have been the most wanted target if an attack had actually been prepared.
The US presidential protection has a particularly wide precautionary margin. Donald Trump has already been directly targeted by several assassination projects or attempts since the presidential campaign of 2024. However, no link was established with Iran in these known cases.
Suspicion of Israeli motivations
The most sensitive revelation concerns the interpretation by some American officials of the intelligence transmitted by Israel.
According to current and former officials quoted by the American press, some members of the intelligence community are wondering whether the Israeli alert was intended solely to inform Washington.
They suspect that she was also able to influence Donald Trump’s decisions and American politics in the region.
This assumption is not presented as an established fact. It reflects the analysis of some American officials and does not demonstrate that Israel has deliberately exaggerated a threat.
However, it is of particular importance because of the context in which the alert was transmitted.
Israel considers Iran its main immediate strategic threat. At the same time, some Israeli officials are following with concern the rapprochement between Washington and Ankara and the personal relationship between Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A former US official considered that the episode could be included in a broader set of Israeli intelligence sometimes perceived in Washington as intended to guide presidential decisions as well as to inform the United States.
This assessment remains questionable and has not been formally confirmed by the US government.
A serious Iranian threat
The CIA’s reservations about this specific alert do not mean that Washington dismisses any Iranian threat against Donald Trump.
The US authorities have been monitoring Iranian projects against senior US officials for several years. Concerns increased following the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani by an American strike in January 2020.
The 2026 war between the United States, Israel and Iran further increased this risk. The Ankara operation took place in the aftermath of further American strikes against Iran, ordered after a break in negotiations to end the conflict.
In this context, the Secret Service had to arbitrate between two different elements: information the CIA considered to be limited in reliability and the potentially catastrophic consequences of an attack against the President.
Protection officials chose not to take any risks.
This logic explains the magnitude of the device: clandestine change of aircraft, use of Air Force One as decoy, transfer to a service vehicle, limitation of the number of persons informed and aerial escort to the UK.
Congress now asks for explanations
The case now goes beyond the only issue of presidential security.
Democratic elected officials are asking for details about Israeli intelligence, their degree of verification by American agencies and the reasons for such an exceptional operation.
Maryland’s Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen questions in particular the credibility of the information transmitted by Israel and the possibility of independently verifying it.
Another question concerns those left on board the former Air Force One. Several government officials, military, secret service agents and journalists were in the aircraft while the president had been transferred elsewhere for security reasons.
The administration will also have to explain why the public version of the trip continued to present Donald Trump as having left Ankara aboard the former Air Force One. The change of aircraft remained secret for more than a month.
The new information on the CIA reserves thus moves the center of the case. The question is no longer just how Donald Trump was discreetly exfiled from Ankara, but why an alert deemed unreliable by some American experts triggered a protective device of such magnitude.
At this stage, the White House did not detail the specific information that led the Secret Service to retain this option or whether Israeli information had subsequently been corroborated by other services.
