Members of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club got up close and personal with international policy—and apparently the nuclear codes—on Friday night when Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dined at the estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Richard DeAgazio, a member of the club, posted photos of Trump and Abe dining at the club on his Facebook page.
He posted several images of a man he identified as the presidential aide who carries the nuclear codes, or « football, » identifying the aide by name.
« Rick is the Man, » DeAgazio wrote.
DeAgazio told the Washington Post on Monday that he watched Trump and Abe decide how to handle breaking news that North Korea had test-fired a ballistic missile.
« That’s when I saw things changing, » he said. « The prime minister’s staff sort of surrounded him, and they had a little pow-wow. »
He said that Trump did not look « panicked » and said that most people present « didn’t even realize what was happening. »
« I thought he handled it very calmly, and very presidentially, » DeAgazio told the Washington Post. « He chooses to be out on the terrace, with the members. It just shows that he’s a man of the people. »
« HOLY MOLY!!! It was fascinating to watch the flurry of activity at dinner when the news came that North Korea had launched a missile in the direction of Japan, » DeAgazio wrote in a Facebook caption on since-deleted photos of Trump and Abe conferring at their table.
