Iran Mocks Trump After Secret Aircraft Switch in Turkey

Iranian state media and diplomatic missions have mocked Donald Trump following reports that he secretly switched aircraft during a July 8 visit to Ankara, Turkey, for a NATO summit. The United States Secret Service executed the covert operation after deeming a threat of a shoulder-fired missile attack credible and imminent, compounded by intelligence that Iranian agents knew the exact floor of the president's hotel.

To evade detection, the Secret Service moved Trump and a small group of aides from Air Force One to a nondescript C-32A jet via a catering truck. Air Force One departed separately with staff and press to serve as a decoy. While Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the intelligence behind the plot as fake, Iranian state television characterized the event as a humiliation and a sign of fear regarding Iran's military power.

The Iranian embassy in South Africa further ridiculed the incident by sharing a meme of the president in a catering box. This diplomatic friction occurs amid an ongoing war between the United States and Iran in the Gulf and pledges of vengeance by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei following the death of his father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.