National Security?

How about International Security?

The iceberg wedge salads, dripping with blue cheese dressing, had just been served on the terrace of Mar-a-Lago Saturday when the call to President Donald Trump came in: North Korea had launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile, its first challenge to international rules since Trump was sworn in three weeks ago.

[...]

Sitting alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom he'd spent most of the day golfing, Trump took the call on a mobile phone at his table, which was set squarely in the middle of the private club's dining area.

As Mar-a-Lago's wealthy members looked on from their tables, and with a keyboard player crooning in the background, Trump and Abe's evening meal quickly morphed into a strategy session, the decision-making on full view to fellow diners, who described it in detail to CNN.

[...]

National security analysts have identified [North Korea's] nuclear program as one of the imminent threats facing Trump as he begins his tenure in the White House.

  CNN

Two fools with nukes.

Even as a flurry of advisers and translators descended upon the table carrying papers and phones for their bosses to consult, dinner itself proceeded apace. Waiters cleared the wedge salads and brought along the main course as Trump and Abe continued consulting with aides.

[...]

Trump's National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and chief strategist Steve Bannon left their seats to huddle closer to Trump as documents were produced and phone calls were placed to officials in Washington and Tokyo.

The patio was lit only with candles and moonlight, so aides used the camera lights on their phones to help the stone-faced Trump and Abe read through the documents.

Perhaps a move to an acutally private location within the "Winter Whitehouse" might have been in order? Or am I picking nits?

Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon are his National Security Advisers in this moment.  How secure are you feeling?

They eventually adjourned to the ballroom to make a joint statement on the nuclear launch.

Standing in front of an American and Japanese flag, a stern-faced Abe called the launch "absolutely intolerable," and insisted North Korea adhere to United Nations Security Council resolutions barring it from testing of ballistic missiles.

And then Trump:

"I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100%."

[...]

He declined to read from a set of prepared remarks, which photographers captured images of, that were resting on his podium.

[...]

Trump left the impromptu briefing room without taking questions, having delivered the first emergency foreign policy statement of his presidency.

And what a statement it was. We're behind Japan 100%. That will go down in history as one of the all-time great speeches from a sitting president, I have no doubt.

I wonder what else photographers got shots of.  Not to mention, diners and staff.  How about the ability of spies (not limited to the NSA) to access those phones that were being used as flashlights? There is a fortune to be made off this idiot's ineptitude with foreign powers willing to pay well.

But even as he confronted one of the gravest matters of his office, Trump nonetheless found it impossible to resist dropping in on a nearby wedding reception, already underway in his treasured Grand Ballroom.

[...]

Entering the ornate room, Trump took a photo with the bride and her bridesmaids, who posed in red gowns next to the commander in chief, mimicking his signature thumbs-up.

Then he grabbed a microphone.

"I saw them out on the lawn today," Trump said of the bride and groom, who were standing nearby. "I said to the Prime Minister of Japan, I said, 'C'mon Shinzo, let's go over and say hello.' "

"They've been members of this club for a long time," Trump said of the newlyweds. "They've paid me a fortune."

Jesus wept. And probably Abe, too.

   

(h/t Jean)

Membership fees at Mar-a-Lago are going to double again, aren't they?

Foreign spies will be willing to triple.  Or just get wait staff jobs.

[T]he club was hiring foreign workers this winter as cooks, waiters, waitresses and housekeepers, at between $10.17 and $12.74 an hour, according to the Palm Beach Post.

  Guardian

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

DeAgazio also posted a picture of a Marine that he called "Rick," claiming that he carries the nuclear "football," the briefcase-sized device that allows the president to order nuclear strikes.

  The Hill

Jesus Christ.

Somebody doesn't seem worried.