Iran mocks Trump's secret jet swap
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The Secret Service deemed the threat credible and imminent, triggering an extraordinary operation to conceal the president's movements.The New York Times reported that US officials were alarmed to discover Iranians knew exactly where Trump was staying in Ankara, down to the floor of his hotel.Tehran has not officially commented on the allegations or the aircraft switch. The White House could not be immediately reached outside of working hours.Billboards and murals across Tehran continue to target the US president and Israel, with imagery ranging from Trump lying in a coffin to drowning in the sea. This comes as new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei last month pledged vengeance for the death of his father and predecessor, killed on the first day of the war.Trump and a small group of aides reportedly used a catering truck to switch from the main blue-and-white presidential aircraft to a smaller, unmarked C-32A jet for the flight out of Turkey on July 8, while Air Force One departed separately carrying senior administration officials, White House staff and the travelling press corps, the source said.Iran's embassy in South Africa posted on X that Trump "will be hidden in a trash can before long," accompanying it with a meme image of Trump inside a catering box.
The account is known for viral memes that Iranian state media have themselves reported on, and is listed on the embassy's official website.The Washington Post first reported details of the plane-switch operation.In 2024, the US Justice Department charged an Iranian man over an alleged Revolutionary Guards-ordered plot to assassinate Trump, then president-elect. Tehran denied the accusations in September 2024.Ali Vaez, deputy programme director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group, said Iranian hardliners, who have spoken of avenging the killing of Iran's supreme leader on February 28 and other senior political and military officials, are "basking in the fact" that the US
was so concerned over Trump's safety.Iran and the US remain at odds over reaching a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, a senior Iranian source said, adding that talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June have seen no progress.On a podcast for Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency, commentator Alireza Majidi recalled Trump's 2018 visit to the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq, a country where Iran has backing among armed groups.Trump himself had described the security measures from that trip as leaving him in something "pitch black," telling reporters at the base he had "never seen anything like it," CNN had quoted him as saying.
The BriefWire