Crisis by cellphone light: Trump’s use of Mar-a-Lago during North Korea missile scare raises security questions

Nothing befitted US President Donald Trump more than his first real national security scare.

The urgent consultation with Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, about a provocative North Korean missile launch, was played out by candlelight, then cellphone lights, against a backdrop of hotel muzak, high-paying guests and low-paid waiters.

One of the guests, retired investor Richard deAgazio, posted pictures of the bizarre scene on his Facebook page showing aides clustered around the two men on the dining terrace of Trump’s Palm Beach country club, Mar-a-Lago.

The North Korean regime puts a lot of thought into the timings of their missile launches. News of the test launch came as the leaders of the US and Japan, two of its greatest enemies, were about to start their first course. The piled iceberg lettuce could be seen in the Facebook photos (which were taken offline later on Monday).

The weapon turned out not to be the long-range ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental US that Pyongyang had been threatening to launch, but that was not immediately clear. Trump had vowed such a launch would never happen, so the moment had the potential to be the first critical test of his resolve in a tense nuclear standoff.