Surf ‘n’ turf with Chinese leader ... then Trump watches missile strikes in Florida war room with his son-in-law

State dinners are usually delicate, finely-calibrated affairs. But when Donald trump sat down to a banquet with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the US president had more concerns than usual on his gilt-edged plate.

His guest at first didn’t know a cruise missile attack on Syria was in train as he sat next to his host over strip steak and Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon.

Shortly after they sat down amid the gaudy, Versailles-style splendour of Mr trump’s £163million Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on thursday, 59 tomahawk missiles were launched from US navy ships in the Med.

they hit their target an hour later, and less than an hour after that – with his guests back at their hotel and digesting the stunning news along with their surf and turf dinner – Mr trump was in front of the cameras giving an emotional justification for the attack.

even before the President arrived at his resort, the attack was being considered. at 1.30pm local time, he convened his national security team while on air Force One en route to Florida. this is how the rest of the day unfolded:

3.15PM: TRUMP’S FIRST MOVES

Mr trump arrived at Mar-a-Lago. three groups of military and national security advisers – in Washington, Florida and the Pentagon – were linked via video conference to discuss the attack on Syria.

Defence Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex tillerson and UN ambassador Nikki Haley laid out the options. at 3.45pm, Mr trump ordered the missile strikes.

5.10PM: CHINESE PREMIER ARRIVES

Mr Xi, who has criticised the opulence of China’s new millionaire class, arrived at one of the most opulent homes in the US. He and his wife, singer Peng Liyuan, arrived at Mar-a-Lago in a limousine, a military guard lining the drive.

they were greeted at the door by President trump and First Lady Melania. Both men wore dark suits while the already tall Mrs trump, in a £4,500 Valentino red dress, towered over the diminutive Mrs Xi in Christian Louboutin five-inch stiletto heels. the four had tea and the leaders talked for two hours.

7.10PM: DINNER IS SERVED

the party retreated to the dimly-lit dining room, which was originally based on a 16th century room in Rome’s Palazzo Chigi but – along with the rest of Mar-a-Lago – has been updated to reflect Mr trump’s garish tastes.

a single long table was laid for 32 diners – an intimate affair by trump standards.

the menu offered caesar salad followed by a choice of pan-seared Dover sole in champagne sauce with green beans and thumbelina carrots or dry-aged New York strip steak with whipped potatoes. For dessert, guests could choose between chocolate cake with vanilla sauce and dark chocolate sorbet, or a lemon, mango and raspberry sorbet.

alcohol was limited. there was no dessert wine, just a red and a white – a 2014 Chalk Hill chardonnay from the Sonoma Coast and a 2014 Giraud cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley.

as well as Chinese officials, guests included trump administration members such as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.

Mr trump’s daughter Ivanka was there with her husband Jared Kushner, a senior adviser and an increasingly key figure in US foreign policy. Mr Kushner, who has strong Chinese contacts through his family’s property empire, was seated next to Mrs Xi. Her husband sat next to Mr trump.

Mr trump turned on the charm for his guests, saying: ‘It’s a great honour to have the president and his incredibly talented wife.’

Raising laughter about the tightlipped Mr Xi, he joked: ‘We’ve had a long discussion and so far I have got nothing – absolutely nothing.’

But he added: ‘We have developed a friendship and I think that long-term we’re going to have a great relationship.’

When a journalist squeezed in a question, asking him if he thought he needed congressional authorisation for an attack on Syria, Mr trump pointedly ignored it.

North Korea, trade and the dispute over the South China Sea would have been discussed. Syria, a conflict from which China’s largely removed itself, is unlikely to have been high on the agenda.

During the meal, almost all the diners would have been unaware of the urgent deliberations under way over the missile attack.

Reportedly neither Mr tillerson nor Mr Mattis were at the dinner but they were at Mar-a-Lago. It appears they were agreeing the final details of the attack and liaising with the military.

8.30PM: DINNER FINISHES

after dinner, Mr trump told President Xi he had ordered the strike. the missiles were launched at 7.40pm and were now ten minutes away from their target. the trump administration also began informing senior members of Congress.

8.51PM: SAYING GOODBYE

the Xi motorcade left Mar-a-Lago, taking the Chinese back to their hotel nearby.

9.15PM: CRISIS MEETING

after waving goodbye to his guests, Mr trump was briefed on the Syria attack in a makeshift situation room at Mar-a-Lago.

a photo released by the White House shows the President staring intently at a screen as he is updated by members of his National Security Council via video link.

He is with thirteen of his top team, sitting on garish gold chairs, including Mr tillerson, sitting on his left, and Mr Ross, to his right. Mr Kushner is also there.

the only woman is Dina Powell, Deputy National Security adviser for Strategy. a notable absentee is Vice President Mike Pence, although he is said to have joined the group remotely.

the photograph, tweeted yesterday by Press Secretary Sean Spicer who was also present, is startlingly similar to one of Barack Obama surrounded by aides in the White House Situation Room as they followed the 2011 raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden.

Mr Spicer tweeted: ‘Photo taken, after strike, approximately 9:15pm in SCIF at Mar-a-Lago.’ SCIF stands for ‘secure compartmentalised information facility’.

the image is unprecedented in showing the video conference technology used inside the President’s secure room. the devices around the outside of the table appear to be speaker phones. those in the centre are believed to be used to encrypt voice communications.

Mr Spicer told twitter followers that the photograph had been edited for security reasons, masking sensitive documents.

9.40PM: POWERFUL SPEECH

Standing at a podium in a makeshift press conference room in the mansion, Mr trump, with sweat on his brow, delivered an emotional speech, addressing the world on why he launched the missile strike. there were none of his usual offhand asides as he read directly from an autocue.

‘assad choked out the lives of innocent men, women and children,’ he said. ‘It was a slow and brutal death for so many. even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack.’

In an indication perhaps of how deeply the chemical weapons attack had affected him, Mr trump made repeated references to God.

He said ‘no child of God should ever suffer such horror’ and appealed for ‘God’s wisdom as we face the challenge of our very troubled world’.

He called for prayers for the attack’s victims, ending: ‘God bless america and the entire world.’