Do you remember that night early in the administration when Trump was sitting with Japan’s prime minister Abe at Mar-a-lago when news of a North Korean nuclear test was shared in the presence of a bunch of Trump’s paying customers?
Here’s the inside story of how that went down from a new book by some Miami Herald reporters:
At dinner Trump’s team took the terrace with a newfound swagger.
They posed for pictures with club members. Businessman Richard DeAgazio, who had recently joined the club, posted several photographs to Facebook, including one with a man he identified as “Rick,” saying he was the aide-de-camp who carries the nuclear football — the briefcase that serves as a mobile command center from which the president can launch a nuclear attack. Steve Bannon sauntered to his seat, glancing to the side and giving a sort of celebrity-style finger point and nod to some nearby diners. Another member, the Palm Beach crystal merchant Ildikó Varga, congratulated Bannon for masterminding such a successful campaign. “Thank you, but it was a team effort,” he responded. The notoriously camera-shy advisor then posed for a picture with her and a few other dinner guests.
The Saturday dinner was a stately affair. The small round table of the previous night — when Trump and Abe dined with Mar-a-Lago member Robert Kraft — had been replaced by a long table where various aides now joined the mix.
Dawn Basham, one of Trump’s favorite lounge singers, was the evening’s entertainment. A few years before Trump took office Basham had performed at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, where the former beauty queen’s voice — and her ability to stun in an evening gown — caught the Don’s attention.
Intent on showing off to Abe, Trump sent his aides to bring Basham right up to their table. This happens a lot to performers at Mar-a-Lago: They are asked to stand next to the table and sing his requests. Usually something from Phantom of the Opera or Cats.
As Abe listened, Trump requested four songs and told Basham what a great job she was doing.
Then the president asked Basham to twirl around for the men, according to someone who witnessed the exchange.
[…]
Standing in front of Abe, Basham began to twirl, careful not to slip on the slick terrace made of surf-polished stones that Mar-a-Lago’s original owner, the cereal fortune heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, collected from the shores of her Long Island hunting preserve. Her silvery evening gown glittered in the dim light. Almost precisely at mid-twirl, things began to change. A flurry of activity began at the president’s table. Something had happened. Something with North Korea. Basham tried to make her exit.
“Mr. President, I shouldn’t know this,” someone heard the performer say.
Trump shrugged.
“It’s just nukes,” the president said. “Sing us a song.”
Trump’s operatic priorities were quickly overruled. North Korea had launched a missile in the direction of Japan.
Basham retreated. Aides with laptops and sheets of paper converged on the table, using cell phones to illuminate the documents for Trump and Abe. The president got on a phone — possibly his unsecure Android that he had tweeted from before the dinner. “Wow … the center of the action!!!” DeAgazio wrote on Facebook. Press had not been allowed into the dinner, so DeAgazio and others on the terrace posted photos and reported what they saw. “Trump and Abe will delivery [sicJ joint statement soon about North Korea Missile,” longtime member Guido Lombardi tweeted from his nearby table, along with a photo of Trump and Abe.
Within about ten minutes of the calls interrupting their dinner, the two grim-faced leaders walked past Lombardi’s table to get a briefing on the North Korean missile test and face the cameras.
“North Korea’s most recent missile launch is absolutely intolerable,” Abe said in Japanese. “During the summit meeting that I had with President Trump, he assured me that the United States will always be with Japan 100 percent. And to demonstrate his determination as well as commitment, he is now here with me at this joint press conference.”
Trump stood stiff armed, off to the side, wearing his resting pout face until it was his turn to speak. He said very little.
“I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent,” Trump said, giving the classic “okay” sign with his fingers. “Thank you.”
After the press conference Trump stopped by the wedding, where he delivered an impromptu toast — “You really are a special, beautiful couple,” the president said — and then went back to the terrace to continue mingling with his guests. Some members expressed their awe at how he handled the situation, even celebrating Trump’s apparent transparency with concerns of national security.
“He chooses to be out on the terrace, with the members. It just shows that he’s a man of the people,” DeAgazio said to the Washington Post.
Much of the rest of the world was horrified.
No biggie. It’s just nukes.