Rubio and Bessent Stayed on a Decoy Flight Out of Turkey as Trump Switched Aircraft, Senior Official Says

President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traveled home separately after a NATO summit in Turkey last month, but the two cabinet secretaries were kept on what a senior U.S. official described as a decoy flight while Trump was moved to a different aircraft, according to a report published Wednesday. The official linked the unusual change in plans to security concerns tied to a threat from Iran, prompting the government to adjust the travel sequence and aircraft assignments at the end of the summit.

The Washington Times reported that Rubio and Bessent stayed on the decoy plane rather than boarding the aircraft Trump took, describing the decision as a protective measure following the Iranian threat. The report said Trump was shifted to a smaller military jet, while the remaining most senior members of the administration took a route designed to reduce the likelihood that any hostile action could be timed to their exact movements.

The account underscores the degree to which the administration and its security detail can alter high-level travel plans at the conclusion of international meetings. While presidents and senior ministers typically travel under layered protection, the reported use of an operational decoy indicates a more specific response to threat information, rather than routine scheduling alone.

The report did not describe the exact nature of the Iranian threat, the timing of the decision, or the operational details of how the decoy was managed on the tarmac. It also did not state whether other senior officials were affected beyond Rubio and Bessent, or whether the change applied to the entire delegation or only to aircraft assignments for the return trip.

Officials have discretion in matters of executive travel security, including the use of alternative routing and aircraft procedures. In this case, the reported sequence suggests the U.S. government treated the threat as actionable enough to change the plan after the NATO summit, with Trump’s movement separated from that of his two top cabinet counterparts.

The report adds to a broader record of how governments respond to credible state-linked threats during major diplomatic events, where delays or rerouting can occur without public explanation until after the fact. That approach can limit what adversaries can learn in real time, but it can also leave questions for the public about transparency and how threat information is evaluated and acted upon.

As of Wednesday’s report, no additional official statement from the White House, State Department, or Treasury Department was included in the account. The next step for clarification would be for the administration or relevant security agencies to provide further details, if any, about the threat assessment process and the general parameters of executive travel security decisions.