Washington - Social media posts of Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe
huddling with aides in a public dining room after North Korea's missile test
raised questions on Monday about his administration's handling of sensitive
information.
The conversation - which would ordinarily take place behind closed
doors and be classified - was captured on camera from close range by a member
of Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday.
Facebook user Richard DeAgazio posted pictures of Trump huddling
with aides and Abe, and taking calls.
One caption of the now removed posts read: "The President
receiving the news about the Missile incident from North Korea on Japan with the Prime Minister sitting next
to him".
DeAgazio later wrote: "The
Prime Minister Abe of Japan huddles with his staff and the President is
on the phone with Washington DC. the two world leaders then conferred and then
went into another room for hastily
arranged press conference. Wow.....the center of the action!!!"
North Korea launched a new ballistic missile Sunday, as it edges ever closer to marrying nuclear and missile
technology that could deliver a devastating payload to the continental United
States.
When the president is away from the White House, many crisis
conversations take place in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility - or
SCIF.
The facilities are normally out-of-bounds for individuals without security clearance and common digital devices such as unsecured mobile phones.
The White House said that Trump was briefed in such a room
"prior to dinner" and that no sensitive information was shared at the
table.
"There is no one in that picture around him or whatever that
isn't part of the US delegation or the Japanese delegation, they were reviewing
the logistics for the press conference," said White House spokesman Sean
Spicer.
"The president was
subsequently briefed again in a classified setting, after the dinner,
before they went out and spoke."
But Democrats were fuming, and quick to recall Trump's criticism
of 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
"There's no excuse for letting an international crisis play
out in front of a bunch of country club members like dinner theatre," said the Democratic leader in
the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
