Trump’s time in Hawaii marks the beginning of his long-anticipated Asia-Pacific Tour.
Air Force One arrived at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii yesterday, Nov 3, at 12:56 pm local (6:56 pm EST) with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, among other officials, on board. Hawaii is the first stop of Trump’s much anticipated Asia-Pacific Tour. “Very important trip. Very important,” President Trump said of the tour en route to Hawaii.
Garnished affectionately with leis as soon as they disembarked the aircraft, the POTUS and FLOTUS were welcomed by Hawaii Gov. David Ige and his wife, Dawn Ige, US Navy Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command, his wife, Bruni Bradley, and Mikayla Webb, the daughter of Adm. Harris’s aid.
President Trump had originally planned to return for a day to Hawaii at the end of his Asia-Pacific tour but instead decided to stay a day longer at The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings held in the Philippines later on in the month. When asked why he decided to extend his stay in the Philippines, Trump stated that he had made the decision because “the following day [of the conference] is actually the most important day.”
President Trump arrived at US Pacific Command at the 1:43pm local time for a briefing. In the evening, POTUS and his party made a visit to the USS Arizona Memorial, where they spent about 20 minutes at the shrine to the 1,177 crewmen who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. President Trump saluted the memorial and afterward, he and First Lady Melania Trump deferentially threw white Pikake flower petals into the water, where the remains of more than 900 Arizona crewmen rest.
After his tour of the Memorial, POTUS received a second private military briefing from Pacific Command leaders and then briefly attended a reception on Pearl Harbor Base at United States Pacific Command (PACOM) Commander Harris’s residence.
This morning, Nov 4, the presidential motorcade made its way towards Hickam Air Force Base at 6:38 am local time. On the way to the military air base, POTUS and his party made an unexpected stop at Trump International Hotel Waikiki. “The President stopped by the Trump Hotel on his way to the airport,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. “It has been a tremendously successful project and he wanted to say hello and thank you to the employees for all their hard work.”
After leaving Trump Hotel, the President and his party boarded Air Force One at 7:24 am local, and the aircraft departed at 7:27 am for an 8-hour flight to Tokyo, Japan where POTUS and FLOTUS will be greeted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. There, discussions will likely center around trade policies and the North Korean threat.