The Secret Service is said to have asked that the president not use the Qatari-donated jet when he left Ankara. The swap deepens questions about the retrofitting of the new plane.

The Secret Service advised that President Trump take the old plane to depart Turkey, according to people briefed on the situation.

President Donald Trump is flying home from a NATO summit in Turkey on an old baby blue Air Force One plane instead of the new Qatari-gifted and retrofitted red, white and navy blue jet he arrived in.

Experts said the lack of such capabilities poses a potential risk when the president travels overseas. The White House defended the aircraft’s safety.

When President Donald Trump departed Turkey this week, he boarded a 35-year-old modified Boeing 747, not the newly converted plane parked across the tarmac that had been introduced with much fanfare just days earlier.

Sources told Haberman last year it was unlikely the Qatari jet could be retrofitted with the necessary security to protect the president.

President Trump returned from Turkey overnight Thursday, traveling on the first leg of the trip on an older Air Force One jet, on the guidance of Secret Service. The move quickly elevated concern about the security of the newly refurbished Qatari jet the president used last week.