Trump Discussed North Korea Missile Crisis in Front of Dozens of Mar-a-Lago Guests

Photos of the big night at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate were briefly made available on Facebook.

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Image via Gage Skidmore
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Guess what Trump was doing when a call came in informing him of North Korea's intermediate-range ballistic missile launch Saturday. Seriously! Take a guess. 

If you landed on "chilling at Mar-a-Lago with paid club members," you nailed it. Courtesy CNN, here's the "iceberg wedge salads, dripping with blue cheese dressing"-assisted setting:

"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."

Michael Flynn, Trump's National Security Adviser who's currently making headlines regarding alleged Russian sanctions discussions, then joined strategist Steve Bannon to "huddle closer" to the former Apprentice host to go over documents under both candlelight and—according toCNN—the glow of aides' smartphones.

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Richard DeAgazio, a retired investor who joined the Mar-a-Lago just months ago, even snapped photos of the big moment and shared them on Facebook. To clarify, allow me to rephrase: a Mar-a-Lago club member was reportedly able to just gaze upon a national security issue in real-time while posting photos to his Facebook. For the record, the Mar-a-Lago Club membership requires a $200,000 initiation fee.

"That's when I saw things changing, you know," DeAgazio, who first learned of the North Korea test thanks to a friend's text message, told the Washington Post Monday. "The prime minister's staff sort of surrounded him, and they had a little pow-wow." Trump's table then became what the Postdescribed as an "open-air situation room."

DeAgazio even allegedly scored a photo with the "football" holder, i.e. the dude tasked with holding the briefcase containing nuclear attack authorization capabilities. According to DeAgazio, the caption accompanying this photo on his Facebook page—which has since been removed entirely—was copied and pasted straight form Wikipedia.

What could possibly go wrong? According to national security experts, potentially a lot. Though presidents routinely travel with a sensitive phone call facilitator called a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIFF), CNNreports it remains unclear whether such equipment was used at Mar-a-Lago Saturday. After the Facebook-captured moment and subsequent private discussion between Trump and Abe, the two held a quick presser before Trump dropped in on a wedding being hosted at Mar-a-Lago and spoke to the guests.

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