Iranian Proxies Target Air Force One & Ukraine Missile Attack

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**Mike Baker** (0:39)
It's Monday, the 27th of July. Welcome to The President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, President Trump reportedly abandoned the new Air Force One in the middle of a recent overseas trip after US intelligence warned of a credible threat from Iranian proxies. I'll have the details. Later in the show, after nearly two weeks of daily airstrikes, President Trump appears to be hitting the pause button on the war with Iran. I'll explain what's behind the sudden shift, another sudden shift. Plus, Russia launches a devastating missile strike on a Ukrainian defense industry exhibition, triggering outrage in Kiev. Not to mention some dismay over why you would hold a large defense industry exhibition in your frequently targeted capital city during the middle of a war.
And in today's Back of the Brief, Romania has shot down its third Russian drone in recent weeks, prompting new warnings from one of NATO's frontline states.
But first, today's PDB Spotlight.
New reporting from the New York Times has revealed a rather remarkable behind the scenes moment from President Trump's trip to Turkey earlier this month for the NATO summit. According to the report, the Secret Service made the unusual decision to switch the president from the new Qatari donated Air Force One to the older presidential aircraft after US intelligence determined there was a credible threat from Iranian proxy forces targeting President Trump. Now, at first glance, this might sound like a story about airplanes, and in part, it obviously is. But it also offers a glimpse into how America's intelligence and protective agencies operate when they believe the commander in chief faces a credible threat overseas. Here's what reportedly happened. President Trump flew into Turkey aboard the new Boeing 747-8 donated by Qatar. But while he was attending the NATO Summit, US officials received intelligence indicating that Iranian proxy forces posed a credible threat to the president while he was traveling. According to the New York Times, the threat wasn't directed at the aircraft itself. We seem to be parsing words here. Rather, it targeted President Trump and whatever aircraft he happened to be using. After reviewing that intelligence, the Secret Service recommended that Trump abandoned the new jet and returned home aboard the older Air Force One instead. Publicly, the president initially brushed off the switch, saying he wanted American service members stationed in England to have a chance to see the new aircraft. But the Times had previously reported that security concerns were behind the decision, and this latest reporting provides the clearest explanation yet as to why.
Now, the older Air Force One offers more mature defensive capabilities and gives the Secret Service more options for mitigating whatever threat US intelligence had identified. It has been reported that the new Qatari donated Air Force One had not yet been completely retrofitted with the same capabilities as the previous aircraft. As you may suspect, presidential travel is planned down to the minute. Every aircraft movement, every communication system, every security detail, of course, every diplomatic schedule, all well coordinated in advance. Changing those plans creates significant logistical challenges and introduces its own risks, which is why you don't often see plans change, which means the intelligence officials and Secret Service advising the president must have believed the information they received justified that sort of disruption. For obvious reasons, we do not know the specifics of the intel that led to the aircraft switch. The reporting doesn't describe whether officials were concerned about a missile attack, drones, sabotage or some other threat. For weeks, we focused on the conventional side of the conflict with Iran, though American airstrikes, naval deployments, missile exchanges and proxy attacks across the Middle East. This report about the intelligence citing a threat to the president is a reminder that modern conflicts are fought on multiple fronts at the same time. While military planners are directing combat operations, intelligence agencies are tracking covert threats, and the Secret Service, of course, is constantly reassessing and evaluating the president's security posture.
Iran has openly threatened President Trump since the 2020 US strike that killed IRGC General Qassem Soleimani. Those threats are nothing new. What's new, if this reporting is accurate, is that US officials believed one particular threat stream had become credible enough to alter the president's movements and logistics in real time. And that's a significant window into just how seriously Washington is taking Iran's ability and willingness to strike through its proxy networks.