Iran Aware of Trump Hotel Floor... Unprecedented 'Decoy Operation'

According to reports, specific intelligence was detected last month that Iran was preparing a surface-to-air missile attack targeting U.S. President Donald Trump during the NATO summit held in Türkiye.

Because of this, the U.S. government carried out an unusual "decoy operation," secretly putting President Trump on a different military aircraft to evacuate him.

The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence authorities detected multiple pieces of threat information targeting President Trump around the start of the final day of the NATO summit on the 8th of last month.

In particular, specific threats were identified indicating that Air Force One, the presidential aircraft, could be attacked with a surface-to-air missile.

Intelligence was also obtained showing that the Iranian side knew not only the hotel where President Trump was staying in Ankara at the time, but even his exact floor.

Information was even captured that a person carrying a shoulder-fired portable missile was spotted near the NATO summit venue.

U.S. authorities judged the reliability of this intelligence to be quite high, and a secret operation to safely extract President Trump from Türkiye immediately began.

President Trump posted on his social media that he would use an older model of Air Force One from Türkiye to the U.K. and boarded that aircraft while reporters watched.

However, the actual movement was different.

Shortly afterward, President Trump slipped out through an exit on the opposite side, moved using the cargo bed of an airport catering truck, transferred to a C-32A U.S. Air Force VIP transport aircraft, and departed Ankara Airport.

The older Air Force One headed separately to the U.K., giving the appearance that it was carrying President Trump.

The operation continued even after arriving at RAF Mildenhall in the U.K., as President Trump re-boarded the older Air Force One, which had arrived ahead of the military aircraft he was on.

He then met with reporters inside the cabin and acted as if he had flown together on that aircraft to the U.K. from the beginning.

It was only a month later that this secret operation and the background of specific assassination threat intelligence from Iran became belatedly known.

(Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Lee Dain | Graphics by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.