Trump's secret flight and the Iran security threat | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast. I'm. Pete Ross, and today I'm joined by our. White House reporter, Bernd Debusmann, in Washington. Bernd, President Donald. Trump has admitted to taking a secret. flight out of Turkey last month due to a. security threat from Iran. What exactly. happened? How did it all unfold? >> On July 8th, as President Trump and his. entourage and the traveling White House. press pool were traveling back from the. NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, what happened was that President Trump. essentially got on the aircraft in full.

view of the cameras on the an older Air. Force One model. Everyone believed he. had got on, and then now what has been. reported and what President Trump has. admitted to is that he then moved on to. essentially what was a catering truck on. the other side of the aircraft and then. was taken in secret with a very small. number of staff members to a smaller Air. Force executive transport jet, which is. often used by the Vice President. And.

then flew to the UK on the way back to. the United States. All of this took. place without the many of the staff on. board knowing and without certainly. without the media on board knowing. And. there were still cabinet-level staff on. board the aircraft. It's a very, very. unusual case, and what prompted this, reportedly, and and President Trump. alluded to it himself, was an. unspecified threat from Iran. We don't. know exactly what the nature of that. threat was, but. everyone I've spoken to here in.

Washington is in quite some agreement. that for this extraordinary step to be. taken, that threat was taken very. seriously by multiple government. agencies, including the Secret Service. >> I guess every president has security. threats against them, and. they've had to take precautions in the. past. But what makes this particular. case different? >> Well, the Secret Service, even in the. course of their daily duties, they very. often use what they term within the. agency as shell games in which they. confuse potential attackers. In in 2003,

for example, the White House announced that then. President George W. Bush was going to be. spending Thanksgiving at his ranch in. Crawford, Texas, only for him to emerge. in Baghdad after a very secretive. flight. Similar things have been done. Presidents going to Iraq, to. Afghanistan. President Biden was. secreted into Ukraine in 2023. The. primary difference here is that those on. board the aircraft, including the media, were not aware that this was happening.

In those previous instances I mentioned, the press was informed, just asked not. to report things in real time in real. time because of the the nature of a. security threat in those sorts of. environments. I think many of the the. media on board and and certainly the. staff members on board understand that. the president does have a very. heightened risk. atmosphere around him at all times. He's. He's of course been subject to. more than one assassination attempt in.

his political career. But also there's. there's questions being made about the. nature of this threat. I think more than. anything, the American public is just. very puzzled about what kind of threat. the the White House and the Secret. Service and the various other agencies. involved, such as the the White House. Military Office, what exactly they. believed was a possibility. that they took this extraordinary step. and whether those on board the Air Force. One. without the president in it were in any.

danger because if that's the case, then. they were essentially being used as as. decoys. >> Let's talk for a moment about. the attempts on Donald Trump. In the. past, he's obviously been very defiant. about attempts on his life. Does the. image of the president sneaking out the. plane undercut that at all? >> Well, I I I think it depends who you. ask. President Trump is is very. dismissive of that suggestion and he. said, which is not wholly untrue, that. when the Secret Service recommends that. he do something, it's in really in his.

best interest to to do so. It's their. job to protect the president and and. other executives of of the US government. and they really do have the knowledge. and expertise to make that decision. And. that's the how he's explained this last. incident. But in the he's also been kind. of dismissive of threats to his life in. the past, although he has acknowledged. they exist. There's been quite a lot of. rhetoric coming from certain figures in. Iran about his potential demise over the.

war in Iran and even before that going. as far back to the assassination of. Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in. Baghdad back in early 2020. At the time. Iranian officials did vow to strike him. then. So he's he's cognizant that this. is certainly something that's possible. and of course he had a very very close. call in Butler and more recently than. that there was the shooting incident at. the White House Correspondents Dinner. Before that there was a shooting. incident near his golf course in Palm. Beach. And in certain incidents such as.

Butler or the White House Correspondents. Dinner, he's really not given a choice. in the matter. He was kind of bundled. off the stage in both those incidents. So I mean he's he's not incorrect in. saying that the Secret Service does have. an enormous amount of leeway over his. protection even if he is the the most. powerful person in the country. >> What does this tell us about Iran's. capabilities, Iran's military. capabilities? Particularly because we've. heard a message time and time again from. Washington that Iran's military has been.

all but destroyed. >> Well, I think that's one of the main. questions being asked in Washington this. week after. reporting about the incident in Ankara. is that if Iran's military and the IRGC. are depleted and weakened to the level. that President Trump says, it really. calls into question their ability to. conduct what have been kind of a very. sophisticated operation to strike at Air. Force One. That would have required, for. example, intelligence. It would have. required safe houses. It would have.

required smuggling in a weapon, uh. potentially a very large weapon, under. what was really an incredibly tight. security posture on the part of the. Secret Service and on the part of. Turkish police and intelligence. agencies. So, it If that turns out to be. the case, I think many people here in. Washington will be wondering. whether there's a disconnect between. President Trump's public comments about. Iran's capability and what Iran actually. can do or whether Iran is adapting to.

kind of get around the conventional. threat of US and Israeli weapons by. adopting this more unconventional. approach of what would have essentially. been an act of terrorism on Turkish. soil. But, I think it's It's too early. to say that that's the case, but I think. that question's certainly being asked in. in Washington. >> And what can you tell us about these. actual threats from Iran? >> Well, the White House, nor the Secret. Service, nor the Pentagon have really. confirmed what exactly this last threat. was, although some of the reporting did.

suggest it had to do with what's called. a MANPAD, which is essentially a a. rocket, uh which can be really. devastating in in in certain incidents. Uh there was cargo planes shot down over. Baghdad in the early 2000s using these. weapons. Um but, broadly, most of these. threats from Iran have been rhetoric and. plots. I think the one instance that. really sticks out to me as something. that sounds quite credible was in. November 2024,

the FBI arrested what they described as. an agent of the IRGC who had flown to. the United States with the intention of. causing President Trump harm. And here. in the US he met with what he believed. at the time were two essentially paid. assassins. What he didn't know was those. two paid assassins were undercover FBI. agents, and he was promptly arrested, and he was. actually convicted of that plot in. March. More recently, there's been a lot.

of concern. some of the images coming out of Tehran. of funerals, for example, of slain IRGC. figures. Some of the signage being held. at those protests is quite explicitly. aimed at President Trump. >> And do we have any sense of how the. president has taken these threats to. him? Do you think he's taking them. personally, and if so, could that have. an impact on on on the war in Iran? >> I certainly think he's taken them. personally, and in the past he's. suggested that if something were to. happen to him, something terrible or.

very large scale would happen to Iran. afterwards if they were in fact linked. to that. So, I think he's he's very. cognizant of this, and I think he's also. to a certain extent very aware of his. own mortality. We saw kind of a a shift. in things he said about his own. death and his own future after that. shooting in Butler. So, it's certainly. something that he's been thought of, but. what it means for the war in Iran is. much less clear. I think. everything we've seen at the moment.

suggests that the president has very. little appetite for kind of renewed. intense strikes of the kind we saw. during Operation Epic Fury. And even if. he wanted to do that, there's tremendous. concern here in the United States about. the stockpiles of anti-missile, anti-drone weapons available, as well as. kind of longer range strike weapons. So, even that is unclear. Even if he wanted. to, what is is possible. But, I think. it's worth noting that since this. incident took place on 8th of July, we.

really haven't seen the president go. back to those sorts of large scale. strikes. And if anything, I think in the. last week or so he's really kind of made. it clear that he prefers to let the. blockade on Iranian ports take its toll. on Iran's economy rather than return to. full scale combat operations. So, is he. taking it personally? I think that's. very likely but would does it have much. impact on the war in Iran going forward? I think that's much less clear. >> Thanks very much Bernd. That's Bernd. Debusmann, our White House reporter in.

Washington. And if you'd like to hear. more from the Global News podcast, click. the link below. Thanks for watching.