Trump dined calmly amid air strikes
Process began with Security council meeting
As he tucked into a New York strip steak and Thumbelina carrots, in an ornate private dining room at Mara-Lago, Donald Trump knew the bombs would be in the air by the time he finished his chocolate sorbet.
Before sitting down to eat, the president gave the order to launch 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syria.
Trump t ook his place next to his guest, Chinese l eader Xi Jinping, at a long table festooned with flowers and elaborate candelabras. He chatted amiably with Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan, and gave nothing away, while the Chinese delegation sipped a 2014 Napa Girard Cabernet Sauvignon.
At this pivotal moment for Trump’s young presidency, the aides he chose to be at the table with him, included his daughter Ivanka, chief of staff Reince Priebus and Wilbur Ross, his commerce secretary.
Jared Kushner, his sonin law, was given pride of place at the other side of the Chinese couple.
Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, was toward the end of the table. At 8.40 p. m. ET, when the Tomahawks were launched from the USS Ross and USS Porter in the eastern Mediterranean, Trump was finally able to tell Xi what was on his mind. The Chinese motorcade left Mar- a- Lago 11 minutes later, speeding past palm trees to a nearby hotel.
The march toward bombing Syria began on Wednesday afternoon with a meeting of the National Security Council in the Oval Office.
Tr u mp’s reaction to Bashar Assad’s sarin attack in Idlib the previous day had been visceral. He chaired the meeting and James Mattis, his defence secretary, laid out a spectrum of options for military retaliation.
They ranged from using cruise missiles to target the Shayrat airfield where the sarin attack was launched, to an assault on numerous airfields, completely grounding Assad’s air force, taking out Syrian air defences, or a wider blitz on Assad’s entire military and chemical capabilities.
According to officials, Trump woke up on Thursday morning having dec i ded he would l aunch missiles. Among the first to know were Mattis, national security adviser H. R. McMaster and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Those three men joined Trump on Air Force One as he headed for Mar- a- Lago on Thursday afternoon and were among the advisers huddling with the president in his cabin.
At one point on the flight Trump emerged to speak to journalists on the plane and denied a decision had been made.
But he stood next to a television screen showing Darth Vader in a Star Wars film, which some took to be an omen. Later, the turbulence on the flight became so bad press secretary Sean Spicer was knocked off his feet.
Arriving at Mar- a- Lago shortly before 3 p.m ., Trump and his team engaged in last minute preparations, some of it in a tent containing secure equipment for communicating with Washington.
Aides worked feverishly on Trump’s after- dinner speech, in which he was to announce the strike.
He had decided to launch missiles against Shayrat, which was at the conservative end of the options offered by Mattis.
Trump was believed to have made his final decision around 4 p.m.
While Trump was in the middle of dinner, the Russian military was informed of the impending U.S. action through a“de confliction” channel designed to avoid the two major powers taking out each other’s forces.
It was a warning f or Russia to remove any of its planes from the area.
After finishing dinner and saying farewell to Xi, Trump moved to an improvised situation room within the Spanish- style walls of Mar- a- Lago for an update on the strike.
He was photographed watching a screen with a dozen of his closest advisers at 9.15 p.m.
Moments later he emerged and delivered his public statement on t he strike.
Trump said t here was no doubt Assad was responsible for the chemical attack, which he said employed banned gases and killed dozens.
“Assad choked out the lives of help less men, women and children ,” Trumped declared, ending, “God Bless America and the entire world.”
HE CHATTED AMIABLY WITH XI AND HIS WIFE PENG LIYUAN, AND GAVE NOTHING AWAY …