{"id":8972,"date":"2026-08-12T11:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8972"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:35:20","slug":"close-trump-aides-but-no-cabinet-officials-made-secret-catering-truck-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8972","title":{"rendered":"Close Trump aides \u2014 but no Cabinet officials \u2014 made secret catering truck move"},"content":{"rendered":"

The president was accompanied by the White House deputy chief of staff, his executive assistant and the director of Oval Office operations, according to a U.S. official.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Are data centers enough to flip a key House race?<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
A catering truck is parked at Air Force One on the tarmac at Ankara International Airport as the motorcade carrying President Donald Trump arrives in July. (Alex Brandon\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

As President Donald Trump secretly left an Air Force One jet on a catering truck last month in response to a potential Iranian assassination threat in Turkey, he was accompanied by some of his most loyal and longest-serving aides, but no Cabinet officials.<\/p>\n

Other passengers on the truck included Dan Scavino, the White House deputy chief of staff; Natalie Harp, the president\u2019s executive assistant; and Walt Nauta, the director of Oval Office operations, according to a U.S. official familiar with the operation and corroborating material reviewed by The Washington Post. <\/b><\/p>\n

A few lower-profile aides also were present, but the group did not include Secretary of State Marco Rubio or other top officials at the highest level of the government, according to the official and the material. Together, those aboard the catering truck moved under concealment from the legacy Air Force One aircraft to a smaller Air Force C-32A before flying to Britain separately from the White House press corps and senior officials.<\/p>\n

The account adds a new level of understanding to a July 8 operation that was first reported by The Post<\/a> on Monday and has triggered calls from congressional Democrats for an immediate briefing on the issue<\/a>. White House officials withheld the secret move from journalists traveling with the president that day and for more than a month afterward.<\/p>\n

Among those on the smaller jet was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who boarded the C-32A with external stairs in a manner that made him look like the senior-most official aboard the flight, The Post reported Monday.<\/p>\n

Scavino, Harp and Nauta all were among an inner circle of supporters who worked for Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida during the four years between his presidencies, after many other officials who served in the first Trump White House distanced themselves following two impeachments and multiple criminal investigations.<\/p>\n

Other senior administration officials, military personnel, Secret Service and journalists remained on the former Air Force One plane that had been deemed too risky for the president\u2019s travel.<\/p>\n

More than a month after the operation and two days after The Post first revealed the ruse involving the military aircraft, the White House has declined to say which administration officials remained on that jumbo jet, which the White House falsely claimed Trump used to leave Turkey.<\/p>\n

In his first public comments about the operation, Trump said the decision for him to take an alternative flight was made by Secret Service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really just up to Secret Service. I just follow what they like to do,\u201d Trump told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday night. \u201cThey wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety. \u2026 I do what they say.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether all the top administration officials involved were aware they were flying on a different plane than the president or whether they, like the reporters assigned to be in the pool covering him, were kept in the dark.<\/p>\n

When asked Tuesday why it was too dangerous for him to fly on the legacy Air Force One but not the press, Trump asserted that he still faced a greater threat than those on the other plane.<\/p>

Read more Trump says Secret Service told him to switch planes because of threat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe plane that I was on was at greater risk,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBecause that would be the plane that I think that they would be more likely to go for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House did not provide the media with a list of passengers leaving Turkey \u2014 information that it commonly does share. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Rubio were among the administration officials who were listed on the manifest on the way to Turkey, where they attended the NATO summit. Other officials on that flight included White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Communications Director Steven Cheung, deputy national security adviser Michael Needham and staff secretary Will Scharf, who was promoted this week to White House counsel.<\/p>\n

Scavino, Harp and Nauta did not respond to requests for comment about accompanying Trump on the catering truck and the ensuing flight from Ankara to Great Britain.<\/p>\n

Scavino has worked for Trump for more than a decade, managing his social media presence and running the White House Presidential Personnel Office. Harp, known as the \u201chuman printer,\u201d constantly accompanies Trump with hard copies of emails, news articles and social media posts. Nauta, a Navy veteran who served as a valet in the first Trump White House, was a key witness in the Justice Department\u2019s probe of Trump\u2019s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.<\/p>\n

The journalists flying on the old Air Force One were unaware of the operation, though they asked Trump later in the day why staff directed them to keep their windows closed throughout the flight from Turkey.<\/p>\n

Trump responded that it was \u201cbecause you\u2019re probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleaze bags that we have to deal with.\u201d Trump said that he has a \u201cthreat all the time\u201d against his life, and that he is \u201cnumber one\u201d on Iran\u2019s \u201clist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats have raised concerns that the maneuver left the press and some White House staff unwittingly in harm\u2019s way. They\u2019ve called for the administration to brief Congress<\/a> on the operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be a congressional briefing because it involves not just the safety of the president,\u201d Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said in an interview with CNN.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to know what precautions were taken to make sure that all of the passengers on that Air Force One, which was judged too dangerous for the president to fly on, what precautions were taken to keep the staff and reporters on that plane safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump told reporters Tuesday that he was not surprised by the Secret Service operation because he faces \u201ca lot of threats that you don\u2019t know about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny consequential president has a lot of threats,\u201d he said. \u201cNon-consequential presidents don\u2019t get threatened. And I think that I may be the most consequential.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Takeaways from the primaries in South Carolina, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Connecticut<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president was accompanied by some of his most loyal aides but no top administration officials as he made the clandestine move to a different plane to leave Turkey last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nClose Trump aides \u2014 but no Cabinet officials \u2014 made secret catering truck move - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8972\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Close Trump aides \u2014 but no Cabinet officials \u2014 made secret catering truck move - 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