A report by one of the journalists accompanying Donald Trump shows that a White House media group was, without informing them, part of a security operation to protect the U.S. president from threats attributed to the Islamic Republic.

As Reuters journalist Graham Slattery wrote, at the end of the NATO meeting in Ankara, the journalists thought Trump was aboard Air Force One with them, but in reality he had secretly left Turkey on another military aircraft. Pulling down the plane’s curtains was done at the direction of the Secret Service to keep this movement hidden.

According to Slattery, during the flight, journalists believed Trump was in another part of the aircraft and that he might be ready at any moment to talk with them.

Slattery wrote that the journalists were unaware of this for weeks and only after later reports were published did it become clear that the aircraft they were on was part of a deception operation. Trump later, by referring to threats attributed to the Islamic Republic, implicitly confirmed that there were security concerns, though he did not directly acknowledge their role in changing aircraft.