CNN's Kaitlan Collins Plays Clip of Donald Trump's Air Force One Escape on Catering Truck: Watch

CNN star Kaitlan Collins aired attention-grabbing footage showing President Donald Trump secretly exiting Air Force One via an elevated airport catering truck in Turkey to escape an apparent Iranian assassination threat.

The footage follows a meticulous investigative report published by The Washington Post, which details a high-stakes security maneuver that left traveling press and standard White House personnel entirely in the dark.

The clandestine operation unfolded on the evening of July 8, following the conclusion of a NATO summit and amid highly heightened military tensions with Iran.

Trump publicly boarded the main Air Force One aircraft at 8:24 p.m. local time in full view of the media. Reporters and some White House staff then boarded, believing the president was inside the cabin with them.

Minutes later, Trump and several close aides were quietly moved off the aircraft and into an elevated airport catering truck positioned at a door away from media cameras.

The catering truck pulled away at 8:30 p.m. and transported Trump to a smaller military aircraft, an Air Force C-32A, which departed separately while the main Air Force One remained on the ground.

“You see here the reporters capture the president getting off the plane that they thought he had just flown on with them to the U.K., and he’s seen coming down the stairs just before 11 p.m.,” Collins said.

Collins reported that senior staff and members of the press pool were used as unwitting decoys, traveling aboard a flight to the U.K. while the president was transported separately.

According to Collins, the administration instructed passengers to keep their window shades lowered to maintain the appearance that Trump remained aboard the aircraft as it traveled into a potential security threat.

The heightened security measures were reportedly initiated following intelligence briefings warning of a specific Iranian assassination plot targeting the president.

The Washington Post reporters noted that details of the operation were disclosed to fill a critical “hole in public understanding” about why Trump abandoned his standard travel schedule and used an older backup aircraft for the remainder of his European trip.

White House and Secret Service representatives have largely referred questions about specific security measures to intelligence agencies.

The Washington Post national security reporter Dan Lamothe said he and his colleagues uncovered the decoy plane story after receiving a tip from sources who believed “there was a hole in the public understanding here that needed to be clarified.”

“It’s unclear at the moment what exactly triggered them to take these extreme measures,” he said. “We’ve gone about a month now since it occurred, and until today, there was no public understanding of it.”