Trump spoke by satellite to a small contingent of U.S. servicemembers stationed in South Korea during an appearance at the Commander in Chief Ball.
He opened by asking after the leader of North Korea, the enemy of the United States and its ally, South Korea.
“How’s Kim Jong Un doing?” Trump asked. He described Kim as someone with “bad intentions” and a “tough cookie” but added that he had a good relationship with the reclusive dictator. Trump controversially met face to face with Kim during his first term and has often spoken highly of him despite his nuclear ambitions and confrontations with the U.S. and its allies in the region.
Trump and Vance, accompanied by their wives, used military sabers to cut a cake adorned with the seals of the branches of the military and topped with a plane.
The cake was adorned with a model of one of the modified Boeing 747 that the Air Force is buying to serve as Air Force One repainted in the color scheme Trump had picked before it was ditched by Biden.
The planes, whose purchase Trump negotiated in his first year in office in 2017, are years-delayed and may not be ready in time for him to fly in before he leaves office in 2029.
