Trump staff flew on a ‘Trump Force One’ plane while the president boarded a decoy plane after security concerns increased. 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.
![[Trump Force One is an extremely identifiable plane that the president and his family utilize]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/09/15/22/GettyImages-1252462459.jpeg)
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.
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.”.
