Bloomberg Surveillance · Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Following reports of President Trump's departure from NATO using a catering truck as a decoy, General Karen Gibson discussed potential threats to the President's life. While acknowledging real threats exist, she expressed no awareness of specific imminent intelligence that would necessitate such an unusual evasive maneuver in Turkey.
“Amidst all of this, there was really a stunning story last night from the Washington Post about the President and his departure from NATO. I was with him in NATO in Alcora, and after he boarded Air Force one, the Washington Post reports that he was shuttled via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals into another aircraft, so as a decoy so he could secretly leave Turkey. Is there a real threat on the President's life that you would be concerned about at this point?”
“Well, I think we've seen, even domestically at people who've attempted to assassinate the President, that there are real threats, and he's been on Iran's fot well lists for some time. I'm not aware, certainly of whatever classified intelligence information may have been available to lead the Secret Service to believe that there was a potential imminent threat, a very viable threat in Turkey. Obviously that's not something that should be disclosed if that were the case. But I would say escaping in a food truck that nobody noticed is a pretty successful evasive measure.”
“A president in a food truck? No, or you know, it's a very it's a very deceptive measure. Creative, certainly seemed to have been effective, but yes, unprecedented, probably, and.”