--- title: Donald Trump Chocolate Cake: What He Told Xi Jinping description: President Trump told the President of China about the Syrian airstrikes over chocolate cake. canonical: https://time.com/4736610/trump-chocolate-cake-jinping-syria/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-12T16:30:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:22:02.748Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Told Xi Jinping About Syria Attacks Over Chocolate Cake og:description: "The most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen." og:url: https://time.com/4736610/trump-chocolate-cake-jinping-syria/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1fbf15b66ced8fe/6988c2658e06010443469e69/gettyimages-665457970.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TOPSHOT-US-CHINA-DIPLOMACY-TRUMP-XI og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Told Xi Jinping About Syria Attacks Over Chocolate Cake twitter:description: "The most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1fbf15b66ced8fe/6988c2658e06010443469e69/gettyimages-665457970.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Told Xi Jinping About Syria Attacks Over 'The Most Beautiful Piece of Chocolate Cake' by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Apr 12, 2017 4:30 PM UTC  President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6, 2017. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6, 2017.Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Apr 12, 2017 4:30 PM UTC President Trump told the President of China about the Syrian airstrikes over chocolate cake. In an interview on Fox Business, Trump said that he and [Xi Jinping](http://time.com/4722468/china-xi-jinping-donald-trump-florida-mar-a-lago-north-korea/) were [having dessert](http://time.com/4720210/trump-xi-jinping-difficult-meeting/) at his [Mar-a-Lago](http://time.com/4736490/president-donald-trump-mar-a-lago/) club in Florida when he learned that the airstrikes would be starting soon. “We had finished dinner, we were now having dessert, and we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen, and President Xi was enjoying it, and I was given the message from the generals that the ships are locked and loaded,” said Trump. Trump said he was worried that if he didn’t tell Xi about the airstrikes that it would be awkward for him to learn about them after he left the dinner, so he shared the news with him. (Trump then mistakenly said the missiles were launched at Iraq, then corrected himself to say Syria.) > [](https://twitter.com/foxbusiness/status/852135930831843329) “He paused for 10 seconds and then he asked the interpreter to please say it again,” Trump said, adding that he worried that wasn’t “a good sign.” Xi then told Trump that he approved of the airstrikes because Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons against his own people. “He was OK with it,” Trump said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4736610/trump-chocolate-cake-jinping-syria/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4736610/trump-chocolate-cake-jinping-syria/"},"headline":"President Trump Told Xi Jinping About Syria Attacks Over 'The Most Beautiful Piece of Chocolate Cake'","datePublished":"2017-04-12T16:30:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:22:02.748Z","description":"\"The most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen\"","url":"https://time.com/4736610/trump-chocolate-cake-jinping-syria/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Foreign Policy","Syria","China","Xi Jinping"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1fbf15b66ced8fe/6988c2658e06010443469e69/gettyimages-665457970.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1fbf15b66ced8fe/6988c2658e06010443469e69/gettyimages-665457970.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TOPSHOT-US-CHINA-DIPLOMACY-TRUMP-XI","caption":"TOPSHOT-US-CHINA-DIPLOMACY-TRUMP-XI","creditText":"Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4736610/trump-chocolate-cake-jinping-syria/","name":"President Trump Told Xi Jinping About Syria Attacks Over 'The Most Beautiful Piece of Chocolate Cake'"}}]}] ```