Donald Trump made a big deal of his arrival in Hawaii on Saturday, lauding the “beautiful welcome” he was shown on his way to visit Pearl Harbour.
What he didn’t mention were the huge crowds protesting him along the route to the famous US Naval Base.
The President was perhaps the most famous member of the so-called “Birther” movement, a group of people who believed Barack Obama was in fact Muslim and born in Kenya not Hawaii and therefore not eligible to be President.
Trump continued to expound the theory long after it was debunked only putting it to rest last year whilst forgetting to mention that he was a key promoter of it.
“President Obama was born in the United States, period,” he admitted before the presidential election.
Trump headed to Japan from Hawaii on Sunday where he played a round of golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The President is on a 12-day trip to Asia, and spoke to US and Japanese forces at Yokota air base shortly after arriving.
Ballistic missile tests by North Korea and its sixth and largest nuclear test, in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions, have exacerbated the most critical international challenge of Trump’s presidency.
Aerial drills conducted over South Korea by two US strategic bombers have raised tensions in recent days.
Trump will also have a state call with the Imperial Family at Akasaka Palace during his visit. Abe and Trump will meet families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.
Joined by his wife Melania on part of the trip, Trump’s tour of Asia is the longest by an American president since George H.W. Bush in 1992. Besides Japan, he will visit South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Trump departed Hawaii for Japan aboard Air Force One shortly before 7:27 am Hawaii time (1727 GMT), reports Reuters.
En route to Hawaii’s Hickham Air Force Base, Trump’s motorcade stopped briefly at the TrumpInternational Hotel Waikiki.
“It has been a tremendously successful project and he wanted to say hello and thank you to the employees for all their hard work,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
Trump extended the trip by a day on Friday when he agreed to participate in a summit of East Asian nations in Manila.
His trip got off to a colorful start in Hawaii. He was taken by boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial, where lies the World War Two ship that was sunk by the Japanese during the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.
The Trumps tossed white flower petals into the waters at the memorial in honour of those who died at Pearl Harbour.