Menu for Trump’s Dinner with Kim Jong-un Gets Last-Minute Rewrite

While the world awaits the testimony from the president’s former lawyer Michael Cohen in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Donald Trump is in Hanoi wrapping up dinner with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un — and it appears that the POTUS had a major hand in the menu planning.

The two leaders are meeting to discuss a plan to remove nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, but this morning, CNN reporter Will Ripley noted that “even negotiating what was going to be on the dinner menu for Kim and Trump tonight was quite a challenge.” Apparently, the two teams only settled on a menu just hours before Trump and Kim’s meeting at the Metropole hotel, with the White House repeatedly adjusting to make it “super simple.”

While reporters covering the historic summit were originally sent a menu that included things like Hanoi-style spring rolls, grilled cod fish “cha ca,” and shredded mango salad with scallops, it appears that the menu did indeed get a major rewrite at the last minute. Now the AP and several White House correspondents report that the meal featured shrimp cocktail with Thousand Island dressing to start, followed by a grilled sirloin entree, and chocolate lava cake for dessert — just the kind of stuff you might find at a Trump-branded resort or steakhouse.

While this is a far cry from the Vietnamese-leaning menu originally planned for the historic summit, at least Trump’s meal didn’t include a cheeseburger delivery like his lunch with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in Tokyo back in 2017.

• The Latest: Trump, Kim dine on shrimp, sirloin, lava cake [AP]
• Trump and Kim start Vietnam summit with dinner [BBC]
• Trump Meets Kim Jong-un to Start Summit Talks [NYT]