Analysis Donald Trump’s big surprise DMZ visit was botched by Mother Nature – and he’s ‘pretty frustrated’
Trump was travelling in a five-helicopter air convoy – but as they neared the DMZ landing site, the pilots were unable to see the other helicopters around them
It was the big surprise that was not to be.
Donald Trump, America’s showman president, hatched a secret plan to visit the Korean Peninsula’s demilitarised zone before he ever left Washington last week on a five-nation tour of Asia, the White House said.
Trump teased a show-stopper during a toast at a state dinner being held in his honour in Seoul on Tuesday night, promising: “We’re going to have an exciting day tomorrow for many reasons” that “people will find out”.
With reporters sworn to secrecy and a beefed-up security retinue in tow, his helicopter took off in the dim early morning light Wednesday bound for the heavily fortified border.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had announced the destination by scrawling the letters “’DMZ” on a notepad, saying that was how she was told to communicate the sensitive information.
But plans for the grand reveal were botched by Mother Nature, and Sanders described Trump as disappointed – and “pretty frustrated.”