Donald Trump has described how he boasted about ordering a missile strike in Syria to the Chinese president while eating “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake”.
The US president told a TV interviewer how he gave the order for a retaliatory strike while having dinner with President Xi Jinping at his luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last week.
Trump ordered the strike in response to a deadly chemical attack by the Syrian regime in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun last Tuesday.
.@POTUS tells @MariaBartiromo he told President Xi about the Missile strikes over "the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake." pic.twitter.com/vPLu7ZhxbR
— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) April 12, 2017
In the interview with Fox Business Network, Trump initially appeared to confuse Syria with Iraq but quickly corrected himself.President Trump said: “We had finished dinner, we were now having dessert and we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake you have ever seen. President Xi was enjoying it.“I was given the message from the generals that the ships are locked and loaded, what do you do? We made a determination to do it, so the missiles were on the way.”
President Trump then explained how he told President Xi about the strike on Syria.“I said, ‘Mr President, let me explain something to you’ – this is during dessert. ‘We have just fired 59 missiles, all of which hit by the way, unbelievable, from hundreds of miles away.’”President Trump then mistakenly said: “So what happens is I said, ‘We have just launched 59 missiles, heading to Iraq.’” He was corrected by interviewer Maria Bartiromo, at which point Trump corrected himself, saying: “Yes heading toward Syria.”It’s safe to say the interview did not go down well on Twitter.
@FoxBusiness @POTUS @MariaBartiromo Unwatchable
— Bill Lutz (@quakerstaten8iv) April 12, 2017
@FoxBusiness @POTUS @MariaBartiromo I am so embarrassed by this man
— Lisa Boornazian (@boornl00) April 12, 2017
@FoxBusiness @POTUS @MariaBartiromo This is absolutely nauseating.
— DeepStateSpikeatone (@spikeatone) April 12, 2017