NYT Photographer Unwittingly Captured Staged Photo of Trump

Doug Mills, a seasoned photographer for the New York Times, expressed his astonishment upon discovering that he had inadvertently captured a staged image of President Trump disembarking from Air Force One. This event took place on July 8, while Mills was accompanying the press corps and Trump returning from Turkey after a NATO summit. Unknown to Mills and the others, Trump had been covertly moved to a different aircraft using a catering truck due to an Iranian threat. After arriving at a military airbase in the U.K., Trump exited the original plane, which Mills photographed, unaware of the switch. Mills, who has documented presidential moments since Ronald Reagan, described his initial feelings of shock and confusion. He recalled that the passengers were instructed to close the shades, a rare directive he had only encountered once before during a secret trip with President Obama to Afghanistan in 2014. He did not suspect that this was to hide Trump's transfer. Mills characterized the moment as the sole staged photograph he had taken of a president leaving a plane he hadn’t actually flown on. He also reminisced about September 11, 2001, when Air Force One was among the few planes in the air, highlighting that the press was oblivious to the peril and effectively served as a decoy. This account was reported by PetaPixel on August 17, 2026.