Conducts North Korea missile response in open-air Mar-a-Lago dinner setting

On the evening of February 11, 2017, Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were dining on the open patio of Trump's Mar-a-Lago club when aides informed the president that North Korea had test-fired a ballistic missile. Rather than relocating to a secure facility, Trump and his advisers reviewed documents and coordinated a response at the dinner table in view of dozens of fee-paying club members and guests, with aides reportedly using cell-phone flashlights to read papers; several guests photographed the scene and posted it to social media. Press Secretary Sean Spicer said only logistics for a subsequent press conference were discussed in public and that Trump received classified briefings in secure locations before and after dinner, but security experts noted the unsecured personal phones, the unvetted proximity of civilians, and the apparent absence of any SCIF use raised the risk that sensitive material could be overheard, photographed, or intercepted. The episode occurred at the same private club where, eleven days later, Kuwait would relocate its National Day celebration to Trump's Washington hotel, underscoring how Mar-a-Lago repeatedly blurred the line between Trump's presidency and his private business interests.