Trump’s team worried Iranian spy would shoot down his plane with a missile after told of threat: book
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Donald Trump’s campaign team worried that Iran could try to shoot down his plane after threats of an alleged plot to kill him became known.
The concern grew enough that the president flew in a plane separate from his recognizable “Trump Force One” to an event, according to an upcoming book about Trump’s rise to power.
While campaigning for president last year, U.S. law enforcement officials warned Trump and his team that Tehran had placed operatives in the U.S. with access to surface-to-air missiles and there was an alleged plot to assassinate him.
After the Secret Service intervened in an almost-assassination attempt at his golf club in Florida, Trump’s security detail heightened security concerns and chose to fly the future president on a decoy plane, owned by Steve Witkoff, and allowed Trump staff to fly on Trump Force One – much to their anger.
Staff worried they would be “collateral damage” if the jet were shot down by Iranian operatives, though campaign leaders assured them they were not “bait.”
The new details are part of an upcoming book, Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power, by journalist Alex Isenstadt.
Security concerns about Iran targeting Trump have existed for years since the president ordered an airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian military leader, in 2020.
The alleged Iranian plot to kill Trump became publicly known in November when Justice Department officials revealed they had intercepted the plot.
Iran has denied the allegations.
Though Iran is not tied to the July 2024 assassination attempt at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally nor the thwarted September 2024 plan in Florida, both elevated security concerns.
On the day of the plane decoy, staff were told Trump would not be flying with them only moments before takeoff when they realized the now-president’s seat was empty.
Chris LaCivita, a political consultant who served as a senior adviser to Trump’s recent campaign, told staffers the decoy plane plan was “a sort of test for how things may happen in the future.”
Staffers told Isenstadt that the flight was a “surreal” experience with “gallows humor galore”.
This is a developing story, more follows
