President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday at the NATO summit that he will not be flying home on the new Qatari-built jet designated as Air Force One. While addressing questions about whether the decision was tied to intelligence regarding Iranian assassination threats, Trump noted that the aircraft will instead tour U.S. military installations in Europe before he returns home via “normal methods.”
During a press exchange, New York Post reporter Steven Nelson questioned the president on whether security concerns involving Iran influenced the travel arrangements, pointing to Trump’s earlier comments regarding potential threats against his life.
Trump addressed the inherent risks of the presidency, offering a comparison to high-risk sports.
“Well, I speak about it a lot because, you know, the life of a president is very dangerous. It’s 5.2 percent,” Trump said. “You know what a race car driver is? One-tenth of one percent. A bull rider, that looks pretty dangerous. It’s one-tenth of one percent. No, it’s 5.2 percent is you don’t make it.”
When directly asked about his placement on an Iranian target list, Trump stated, “No, I’m number one on the kill list for Iran. They’re lovely people. I’m number one. So I don’t know. I can’t tell you that, but I don’t really care because I’m doing my job.” He added, “There was another list came out yesterday and I’m number one on. I like being number one on TikTok better, but I’m number one on the list for killing.”
When Shawn McCreesh of The New York Times pressed for the specific reason behind the plane remaining grounded for his return journey, Trump did not directly answer the security query but detailed the upcoming itinerary for the aircraft.
“It’s flying to Europe to one of the big bases, two or three of the big bases, where we can show it to the people,” Trump said. “And we’ll be going home by normal methods. But we have it going to Europe to a couple of bases. Actually, one in particular, but it’s going to go to a couple of bases, so the soldiers can see it because it’s truly magnificent.”
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