Rules of US presidency being rewritten in Mar-a-Lago

From this base, Trump has been rolling back and reconsidering many Johnson-era policies

- Bhagyashree Garekar US Bureau Chief

Gilt-edged plates glinted underneath crystal chandeliers as the evening sizzled with significance. Next to President Donald Trump sat Chinese President Xi Jinping, taking his first measure of the new American president elected on a populist wave.

It was the evening of April 6, 2017.

Across the Atlantic, two destroyers lurked in the eastern Mediterranean, their cruise missiles trained on a Syrian airbase, waiting for orders from the commander-in-chief.

President Trump’s five-year-old granddaughter Arabella sang a Chinese folk song and recited classic poetry for Mr Xi and his wife, Madam Peng Liyuan. The company dined on dry-aged steak and whipped potatoes at Mr Trump’s palatial home, the Mara-Lago estate in Florida.

“We had finished dinner, we were now having dessert, and we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen,” Mr Trump would recall in a TV interview a week later.

“President Xi was enjoying it, and I was given the message from the generals that the ships are locked and loaded,” he said.

And then, savouring the moment like only a showman could, he leaned forward to tell his Chinese counterpart: “We’ve just launched 59 (Tomahawk) missiles heading towards Syria.”

The missiles levelled the airfield from which then Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, currently exiled in Russia, had flown planes laden with chemical weapons.

The revelation was met with silence. Mr Xi sat absolutely still.

The silence stretched on, and Mr Trump later said he thought it was a bad sign.

After a lengthy pause, Mr Xi finally reacted, saying “it’s OK”. After all, the Syrian leader had used chemical weapons against his own people.

The tension ebbed and talk flowed more freely that night.

The stakes at that first meeting were especially high because the lead-up to it had not been smooth.