Iran had operatives in the US to shoot down ‘Trump Force One’: Book

US President Donald Trump had to fly on a decoy plane at least once while on the campaign trail last year after law enforcement officials suggested that Iran had placed operatives with access to surface-to-air missiles inside of the United States, according to a new book.

Tehran has repeatedly threatened to kill the president after he ordered the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani during his first term. Several other officials who served in the first Trump administration were also targets of the Iranian regime and received government-provided security details because of threats during the Biden administration. Last November, the US Justice Department charged an Iranian man in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire plot to kill Trump while he was a presidential candidate.

Trump recently stripped these officials, including former Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and Brian Hook. Pompeo was his top diplomat; Bolton was his national security advisor, and Hook was Trump’s special envoy for Iran. But he signed a memo last week to increase American pressure and sanctions on Iran despite him saying he “hated doing it.”

According to an upcoming book, “Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power,” Trump was increasingly concerned that agents of the Iranian regime would target him.

Trump escaped two assassination attempts during his campaign against former president Joe Biden. While neither effort has been linked to Iran, Trump’s team began to grow fearful of Iranian plots.

As a result, the book’s author says that his security team made him travel on a decoy plane owned by Steve Witkoff, who he later appointed as his special envoy for Middle East peace.

Trump’s private plane transported his staff, while Susie Wiles, who is now his chief of staff, went with him on Witkoff’s plane. “Many aides on Trump’s jet didn’t learn about the hush-hush plan until just before takeoff when they realized Trump’s window seat was empty,” the author wrote in an article for Axios.

According to the book, the Secret Service also organized a decoy motorcade the day Trump traveled on Witkoff’s plane.

During a Sept. 18 rally in New York, the Secret Service said they had intel that someone, unclear if they had any affiliation to Iran or not, may have been planning to open fire at Trump’s motorcade.

The following week, the Secret Service used an electromagnetic gun to disable a drone above Trump’s motorcade in Pennsylvania, the author said. No further details were provided.