President Donald Trump looks on as he speaks to reporters on board Air Force One, going from West Palm Beach, Florida, to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, February 16, 2026. REUTERS Elizabeth Frantz
The new revelations about President Donald Trump's Air Force One ruse have exposed his "increasingly paranoid" state, and according to an analysis from The i Paper, there is one fear above all others driving this change.
The Washington Post reported this week that an incident from last month, in which Trump purportedly switched to an older Air Force One model while departing Turkey due to concerns about an attack by Iran, was actually more complicated than it seemed. It turned out that Trump had actually been covertly escorted off that older craft by the Secret Service and onto a military craft, then snuck back onto the "decoy" plane after landing in the U.K.
The incident has raised numerous alarms and questions, including why the administration has gone so hard after reporters for supposedly getting the leaked initial version of the story if they knew it was not accurate, and why they felt they could let reporters stay on the decoy Air Force One if they believed it was under threat.
In a new column for The i Paper, reporter James Ball wrote that this "staggeringly high-risk maneuver," whether it was the president's idea or his security detail's, sprang from his mounting fear of being targeted for assassination.
"Trump has reasons to fear assassination, of course," Ball explained. "In July 2024, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt while speaking at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, during which a bullet seemingly grazed his ear. There have been several other attempts to target Trump since, including at his golf club in Florida in September 2024, and at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this April, though none of these got anywhere close to the President.
Ball also argued that the entire situation was an "encapsulation of Trump’s second term," with each problem being driven by his own greed or recklessness.
"He was at risk due to a war against Iran he had launched, which he has repeatedly claimed was already won – even claiming to have agreed to a peace deal," Ball continued. "His new Air Force One, which will be owned by his presidential library for his personal use after he leaves the Oval Office, was not secure enough to use."
He concluded: "And so, to find a way out of this predicament entirely of Trump’s creation, someone conjured up a drastic plan that led to the President hiding with catering, turning journalists into human shields and breaking a decades-long precedent about not lying about the President’s whereabouts. Trump’s fear of assassination might be well-grounded – but it is leading him into some very strange places indeed."