President Donald Trump has issued a new update after US bombers were withdrawn from a UK airbase. Mr Trump said there were “some threats” which led to the withdrawal from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, telling reporters outside the White House, “we moved them around a little bit, not very far”. The Pentagon confirmed on Sunday that all US bombers which had been deployed to Fairford had headed back to their home stations in the United States.
The Trump administration earlier sought to play down the withdrawal of US bombers from RAF Fairford after suggestions that the move was linked to security concerns.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would not link the departure of aircraft from RAF Fairford to a recent suspected terror plot targeting the base.
Speaking to reporters at a base in the US, Mr Rubio said: “We’ve documented what happened last week. I wouldn’t directly tie that to the move that was made.”
He added: “It’s not unusual to see movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments, people changing out and new people coming in, new planes coming in and old planes going out.”
But asked as he left the White House on Monday if the planes had been moved in response to a threat, Mr. Trump said: “Yeah, I think we can say that. They didn’t fly out by accident.
“No, but there were some threats and rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy.
“But why should we keep them there? So we moved them around a little bit, not very far.”
He added that Washington “actually knows the people who made the threat”, but did not confirm who.
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