US President Donald Trump gave an intimate account of his state of mind as he ordered the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles on Syria last week, and implied that China’s leader Xi Jinping agreed with his decision.
“I was sitting at the table. We had finished dinner. 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 told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, during an interview that aired on Wednesday morning.
“And I was given the 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.”
Trump says that he was faced with a dilemma – whether to inform Xi, who “was eating the cake, and was silent” of the attack.
“What does he do, finish his dessert and go home and then they say, you know, the guy you just had dinner with just attacked a country?” Trump mused, and then told his counterpart the news.
“He [Xi] paused for 10 seconds and then he asked the interpreter to please say it again.
