The footage also depicted Donald Trump, dressed in a dark blue suit and red tie, descending the steps of a similar aircraft.
WASHINGTON, DC: Recent accounts regarding President Donald Trump being secretly transferred to a military aircraft during a NATO summit in Turkey last month have brought significant attention to a high-security operation.
According to officials, Trump was moved to another plane to shield him from a credible Iranian security threat. Meanwhile, White House aides, Secret Service personnel, military staff, and members of the press stayed aboard the original decoy aircraft.
Following these reports, a widely shared video emerged on social media purporting to capture the covert aircraft switch. But is the footage authentic?
The Claim: Footage Emerges of Trump Swapping Planes in Turkey
Attention surrounding the clip grew after political activist Laura Loomer posted it on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption, “Exclusive video footage of President Trump swapping planes in Turkey to dodge an Iranian assassination plot.”
The 45-second video attempts to document the transfer. It begins with a large white passenger jet marked with red and gold stripes alongside a presidential seal. Individuals, including camera-toting journalists, are seen boarding via airstairs in broad daylight.
The video then cuts to show Donald Trump—wearing a dark blue suit and red tie—stepping down from the stairs of a comparable aircraft and walking across the tarmac accompanied by Secret Service agents in suits and sunglasses.
Later in the clip, the setting shifts to the interior of what looks like a military cargo plane, complete with webbing seats, dim illumination, and red cargo straps. Trump is shown seated and smiling amongst armed soldiers in tactical camouflage.
Within hours, the clip accumulated over 324,000 views, prompting widespread debate over its authenticity.
One social media user questioned, “Did anyone from the @WhiteHouse or my president @POTUS approve this new story? And why not come up the next day and tell IRAN that they’re going to pay for making my president change planes?”
The Reality: The Video is AI-Generated
The claim is entirely untrue. There is no legitimate or official video showing President Donald Trump secretly switching planes during his trip to Turkey.
That said, reports do confirm that Trump changed aircraft following his departure from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, in July 2026. Intelligence provided to U.S. officials pointed to a genuine threat originating from Iran or its proxies, potentially involving a missile or shoulder-fired weapon aimed at Air Force One.
To counter this, Trump initially boarded the older VC-25A (Air Force One) publicly in front of cameras as a decoy. He then reportedly exited through the opposite side of the plane, entering a raised airport catering truck or service container. This vehicle transported him discreetly to a smaller Air Force C-32A—a modified Boeing 757—for the remainder of the journey.
Because of the covert nature of the maneuver, journalists and staff remaining on the decoy plane were completely unaware of the swap at the time, and no public footage of the catering truck transfer has ever been released.
The viral clip promoted by Laura Loomer as “exclusive footage” is not genuine and exhibits clear signs of being produced or heavily altered using artificial intelligence.
Multiple visual anomalies give away its synthetic origin. For instance, lettering on the aircraft is botched or misspelled, with words like “United” distorted into strings like “UNITEED.” Furthermore, the video displays typical AI glitches, including inconsistent clothing textures, duplicated background figures, unnatural movements, and incongruities in the aircraft’s physical features.
A Community Note attached to the post further clarified the situation, pointing out, “This is AI. Note the misspelling of United on the plane.”