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U.S. intelligence officials assessed that an Israeli-provided warning of an Iranian assassination threat against U.S. President Donald Trump lacked credibility before the extraordinary decision to switch him from Air Force One via a catering truck during his departure from the NATO summit on July 8, multiple U.S. officials told news organizations.
CIA analysts characterized the intelligence as "Israeli-derived, not U.S.-generated, and viewed as low confidence," according to The Washington Post.
U.S. intelligence agencies ultimately deemed that the information did not indicate a serious or immediate threat, sources told ABC News.
The assessment deepened a quiet but growing anxiety in Washington about how foreign intelligence can alter the physical movements of an American president and potentially influence U.S. foreign policy.
Trump arrived in Ankara on a Boeing 747-8 aircraft gifted by Qatar but departed aboard a legacy Air Force One before being transferred in an airport catering truck and boarding a U.S. Air Force C-32A transport plane for his flight to Britain.
The Secret Service decided the potential threat, however unverified, warranted the extraordinary precautions.
The threat originated with Israeli sources and was passed to the CIA, according to reporting by The Washington Post and ABC News.
The intelligence warned of an Iranian covert operations unit that could target Trump's aircraft with shoulder-fired missiles known as MANPADS, potentially from within a one-kilometer radius of Ankara Airport.
Israeli officials had not had time to fully vet the information or reach their own determination about credibility but chose to share it given the urgency of Trump's imminent departure, according to ABC News sources.
U.S. and Turkish authorities continued investigating the potential missile threat after Trump departed, but did not uncover evidence of an operational plot, according to one official cited by news organizations.
Despite the intelligence doubts, Secret Service officials ultimately determined they could not take a chance on even the possibility of a threat.
"The Secret Service has had three near misses with this president, so they're not taking any chances," one official told The Washington Post.
Trump confirmed the decision was made by the Secret Service.
"It's really just up to Secret Service," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"I just follow what they'd like to do. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety, but they wanted me to do it, so I do it. I do what they say," he added.
The incident triggered criticism from national security figures and lawmakers over the use of unverified foreign intelligence to influence U.S. presidential movements.
Joe Kent, former head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned in protest over U.S. military escalation against Iran, warned that the case illustrated Washington's vulnerability to manipulation.
"It's smart to take all threats seriously but if you're basing a decision about going to war on information from a liaison intel service or an 'ally', it's important to remember they are most certainly providing that information to influence us as well as inform us," Kent wrote on social media platform X.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, questioned the validity of the intelligence.
"I am very curious about the extent to which the Israeli-provided intelligence was not only credible but independently verifiable," Van Hollen told The Washington Post.
"I have no doubt that Iran would like to see the president gone, but this all seems a little fantastical," he added.
Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the operation's execution.
"Even if there was low confidence in the intelligence … it didn't seem like an intelligent choice, to me, for the president to slink away in a catering truck, leaving key members of his Cabinet and the traveling press to take off in Air Force One," Coons told CNN.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained on the older Air Force One, which became a de facto decoy plane. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, along with White House aides, flew with Trump on the C-32A.
Danny Citrinowicz, who served in command positions in units of the Israel Defense Intelligence for 25 years, warned about long-term damage to intelligence credibility.
"Even accurate and important intelligence may be viewed with greater skepticism," he wrote on X, cautioning that if U.S. policymakers believe Israeli intelligence is designed to advance specific policy goals rather than objective assessments, Israel might lose influence over American security decisions.
Turkish officials expressed suspicion about the intelligence's authenticity.
According to Middle East Eye (MEE), Turkish officials believe the Israeli report was likely a ruse by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to portray itself as protecting Trump, derail negotiations with Iran, and undermine Trump's apparently close relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"Of course, we took the report very seriously and tried to assist our American counterparts as much as possible," one Turkish official told Middle East Eye, adding, "Yet it was very clear to us that there was no way this report was true."
An Ankara insider told MEE the timing seemed suspicious.
"I guess they need heroes for an attack that never happened and, most likely, was never planned," the insider said.
The Turkish officials noted that Netanyahu opposed F-35 fighter jet sales to Ankara and was pushing for resumed military hostilities against Iran, positions that contradicted Trump's diplomatic overtures during his meeting with the Turkish president.
Robert McDonald, who spent 21 years with the Secret Service, pushed back on the idea that Air Force One and the people still aboard it may have been left exposed.
"I would find it incredibly hard to believe that those two planes weren't escorted or with other assets from allies or the U.S. Air Force in the area," he told TIME, adding that he doubted the people on the aircraft "were dangled out there and left to fend for themselves."
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