Operation ‘Dessert Storm’
President Trump said Wednesday that he told Chinese President Xi Jinping about the US cruise missile attack on Syria while the two were savoring “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen.”
The odd aside came during an interview with Fox Business Network in which Trump related details about their two-day diplomatic tête-a-tête at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“We’re now having dessert, and we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen. And President Xi was enjoying it,” Trump said, setting the scene for the mo- ment he broke the dramatic news to his Chinese counterpart.
Trump then told Xi he had just received a message “from the generals that the ships are locked and loaded, what do you do? And we made a determination to do it, so the missiles were on the way.”
“And I said, Mr. President, let me explain something to you. This is during dessert. We’ve just fired 59 missiles, all of which hit by the way, unbelievable from, you know, hundreds of miles away, all of which hit.” He went on to praise US technology. “Our technology, our equipment, is better than anybody by a factor of five. What we have in terms of technology, nobody can even come close to competing,” Trump said.
After hearing the news, the Chinese president was speechless for 10 seconds, Trump said.
“And then he asked the interpreter to please say it again. I didn’t think that was a good sign,” Trump said.
“And he said to me, ‘Anybody that uses gases . . . anybody that was so brutal and uses gases to do that to young children and babies, it’s OK.’
“He was OK with it,” the president said.