Assessment in the US: Warning from Israel about Iranian threat against Trump was unsubstantiated

US intelligence agencies are raising doubts regarding the severity of the Iranian threat to attack Air Force One during US President Donald Trump's visit to the NATO summit in Turkey, according to a report by the ABC network.

Intelligence officials claim that the unusual step, during which Donald Trump was moved from the presidential plane to another, was born out of an Israeli warning about the possibility of a shoulder-fired missile being used against the aircraft. The warning was passed to American intelligence as the president was preparing to leave Ankara.

The report details that Israeli officials did not have enough time to examine the reliability of the information they received, and they chose to pass it to the American side due to the short time remaining until the president's departure.

Intelligence sources who spoke with NBC stated that the US classified the suspicion as one that does not constitute a significant or immediate threat. Nevertheless, the decision was not to take a risk even on a slim possibility and to recommend increasing security for the president — a decision that led to his transfer to a catering truck, from which he was moved to an alternative plane.

In a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, Donald Trump said he acted according to the instructions of the US Secret Service:

"It's their job. I just do what they prefer to do. They wanted to go on a different flight on a different plane. Same level of safety, but they wanted me to do it — so I did it."

Donald Trump has been defined by senior officials in the Iranian regime as a primary target ever since the decision to eliminate the commander of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, in 2020. The threats intensified significantly after the elimination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the American-Israeli attack on Iran in March.