Trump's Ankara visit marked the first trip by a sitting US president to the Turkish capital in about 17 years.
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Donald Trump arrived in Ankara for the NATO Leaders Summit on July 7-8 with a huge US delegation of about 1,400 people, including politicians, diplomats, military officials, and CIA personnel.
Turkish outlet Türkiye Today reported ahead of the visit that Trump's trip would be the first time in roughly 17 years that a sitting US president had visited the Turkish capital.
George W. Bush was the last sitting president to do so when he stopped in Ankara before the 2004 NATO summit in Istanbul. Barack Obama made a short working visit in 2009 but did not return as president, while Trump did not visit Turkey during his first term and Joe Biden never made the trip.
The timing of the visit was not the only part that drew attention. A separate detail about how US officials handle a president's bathroom waste during foreign trips quickly became the talking point people noticed.
The reason is not simple embarrassment or strange travel behavior. It is linked to intelligence concerns, because biological material can reveal private clues about a leader's health.
That made the detail sound odd at first, but it fits with the kind of behind-the-scenes security planning that follows a president during a foreign trip.
It's a long standing tradition for U.S Presidents to take their poop home with them
Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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Secret Service reportedly planned to fly Trump's toilet waste back to the US
The plan described before the Ankara summit was for the Secret Service to bring Trump's personal toilet system to Turkey. Any waste produced by the president during the trip would then be collected and returned to US soil instead of entering local sewage systems.
The point of the measure is to stop foreign intelligence services from analyzing the president's biological material. Even something as ordinary as human waste can contain clues about medication, illness, diet, and possible treatment.
The practice has also been linked to other world leaders. Vladimir Putin, who Kremlin watchers have claimed may be battling cancer, has reportedly used a dedicated team to retrieve his waste when traveling abroad.
Experts say stool samples can reveal a surprising amount about a person's health, including possible signs of chemotherapy treatment. Similar tactics have also allegedly been used on other world leaders through history, including Mao Zedong, Hafez al-Assad, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Trump's presidential limousine was also expected to be flown in from the US as part of the wider security setup. The Secret Service was also expected to use close-range security drones, though public reports did not confirm whether drone operations were approved in Turkish airspace.
Trump arrived in Ankara this week, the first U.S president to visit Turkey for 17 years, to discuss the Iran War, Nato and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
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44,000 police officers were deployed as roads closed across Ankara
The security operation went far beyond Trump's own delegation. Turkey's Interior Ministry deployed 44,000 police officers across Ankara for the summit, including 24,000 from the city's own force and 20,000 temporarily brought in from departments across the country.
Gendarmerie units were also assigned to secure entry and exit points around the city. Roads across Ankara's western and southern districts were expected to close during the summit, with some routes sealed off and major shopping centers possibly suspending operations.
The summit planning covered more than 100 delegations, including defense ministers, foreign ministers, and military chiefs of staff.
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The summit has now concluded. NATO said in its official Ankara Summit overview that leaders focused on defense investment, industrial production, support for Ukraine, and wider security challenges.
The meeting took place during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and renewed tensions around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, rather than after a settled US-Iran framework agreement.
NATO also said allies addressed freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, which kept the Middle East and the war in Ukraine high on the summit agenda.