CIA assessed Iran assassination tip that prompted Trump's secret plane switch as low-credibility

US intelligence officials assessed the Iranian assassination threat that triggered President Donald Trump's covert military aircraft switch as having low credibility, it has emerged.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing current and former US officials familiar with the matter, that Israel passed intelligence to the United States warning of an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump — but that the CIA attached a skeptical assessment before forwarding it to the Trump administration.

One official told the Post that the intelligence "came from Israel, not from US-produced information, and was assessed as low confidence."

The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported, citing US officials, that Israel shared intelligence with the United States about an alleged Iranian assassination attempt targeting Trump, including the possibility that Iran might use a man-portable surface-to-air missile against Air Force One. No missile was fired at the aircraft.

Trump quietly switched planes at Ankara's airport on July 8 after concluding his schedule at the NATO summit in Turkey.

He was seen boarding Air Force One before slipping out through a door on the opposite side of the aircraft via a catering vehicle. He then secretly transferred to a separately prepared C-32A military transport and flew on to Britain.

White House press corps journalists aboard Air Force One believed Trump was on the plane with them — meaning the aircraft effectively served as a decoy to evade the alleged Iranian threat.

The US Secret Service, which protects Trump, strongly pushed for the aircraft switch based on the Israeli intelligence despite the CIA's skeptical assessment, the Post reported.

When the episode drew public attention, Trump responded to reporters' questions Wednesday, saying: "They wanted me to take a different flight, a different plane. Same safety, but they wanted to do it that way, so I did it. I do what they tell me."

A former official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was traveling with Trump at the time, was briefed on the Israeli intelligence and the Secret Service's decoy plan but chose to remain aboard Air Force One rather than follow Trump onto the military transport.

One official acknowledged doubts about the Israeli intelligence but said the Secret Service had no choice but to exercise extreme caution. "The Secret Service has had three close calls involving the president, so they are not taking any chances," the official said.

The remark alluded to a string of incidents targeting Trump — from assassination attempts during the 2024 presidential election campaign to a shooting outside the White House Correspondents' Dinner venue in April — that had raised questions about gaps in Secret Service protection.

Some analysts have suggested that Israel's decision to share the intelligence may not have been purely a matter of information-sharing, but rather a calculated move to influence Trump's decision-making and US policy toward the Middle East.

One former official told the Post the episode "fit a broader pattern of Israeli intelligence reporting that appears designed to shape the president's decision-making."