In front of the cameras, President Trump boarded Air Force One after a NATO summit in Turkey last month. But he did not fly out on that plane.
Instead, he hid in an airport catering container and was taken to a military jet for a secret flight out of the country. He then re-boarded the original plane in time to be seen by the news media.
The elaborate plan, spurred by threats from Iran and apparently developed in a matter of hours, was an unusual instance of journalists and the public being deceived about the president’s whereabouts. Presidents have made clandestine trips before, but rarely with so complete a deception or with no apparent intention to make clear eventually what really took place.
The White House press pool, a group of journalists from various news organizations who cover the president and travel with him, typically receives guidance beforehand of his daily agenda. The guidance can be vague for security reasons and change on short notice. But Mr. Trump’s ruse was unusual in that it also left White House staff members and journalists on the original plane as unknowing decoys and in potential danger.
Here are some recent examples of when past presidents have made unannounced trips.
Bill Clinton covertly traveled to Pakistan in 2000.
One piece of presidential subterfuge also involved three planes but came roughly a quarter-century earlier.
President Bill Clinton traveled to India and Pakistan in 2000 to try to defuse tensions in Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by both countries.
“Mr. Clinton, who decided to come to Pakistan after intense disagreement within the administration, spent barely six hours in the country,” The Times wrote at the time. The logistics of getting there included “some of the most elaborate security precautions ever devised for his travels.”
As Mr. Clinton was leaving India, he walked to the door of a military aircraft and shook hands with dignitaries as though he was going to board it.
But instead, The Times reported, he slipped around the front of the plane to board an unmarked, white jet that was parked nearby.
In total, three planes made the trip to Islamabad: the unmarked plane with Mr. Clinton aboard, the original military aircraft and a third decoy plane similar to Mr. Clinton’s but painted in the powder blue of Air Force One.
George W. Bush surprised troops in Iraq in 2003.
On Nov. 27, 2003, about eight months after the start of the Iraq war, President George W. Bush flew to Baghdad on Air Force One, in what was the first visit to the country by an American president.
The Times’s coverage of the trip called it a “stunning mission conducted under enormous secrecy.” It was so secret, the report said, that even the president’s wife and parents were not told of it in advance.
Mr. Bush’s entourage did, however, include “a few advisers and a small number of reporters sworn to secrecy.”
The president had been spending Thanksgiving at his ranch outside Crawford, Texas, and officials said he would be there all weekend.
Instead, he left the ranch in an unmarked car, flew to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington and from there to Baghdad International Airport. He spent just over two-and-a-half hours in the country.
Barack Obama secretly visited Afghanistan in 2010.
President Barack Obama made his first secret visit to Afghanistan in 2010 to meet American troops there and to speak with the country’s leader. Journalists had been told beforehand that he was spending the weekend at Camp David, The Guardian reported at the time.
That misdirection was one of several layers of security, including visiting at night, staying only briefly and giving limited notice to the Afghan government, according to The Guardian.
The trip did not, however, involve a physical charade that implied the president was in a different location or vehicle.
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