Trump's team discussed response to North Korea missile test in front of diners at Mar-a-Lago [View all]

[Denzil_DC]

At Mar-a-Lago, Trump tackles crisis diplomacy at close range

(CNN)The iceberg wedge salads, dripping with blue cheese dressing, had just been served on the terrace of Mar-a-Lago Saturday when the call to President Donald Trump came in: North Korea had launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile, its first challenge to international rules since Trump was sworn in three weeks ago.

The launch, which wasn't expected, presented Trump with one of the first breaking national security incidents of his presidency. It also noisily disrupted what was meant to be an easygoing weekend of high-level male bonding with the more sobering aspects of global diplomacy.

Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he'd spent most of the day golfing, Trump took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area.

As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/12/politics/trump-shinzo-abe-mar-a-lago-north-korea/index.html

Aside from this revelation that if you want to know how the president handles an international crisis, you just need to book dinner at Mar-a-Lago when he's visiting and hope you're lucky, the article also explains Trump's advisers' decision that he would not make the formal statement prepared for him to follow Abe's speech.