As commander in chief of the U.S. government, living on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Donald Trump ordered a well-done, ketchup-smeared strip steak at his eponymous hotel, had his Diet Coke served in seven absurd steps and flooded the White House with fast-food deliveries from McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken. These historic eating habits made the right-wing VIP’s unexpected outing to Virginia’s Eden Center on Monday all the more odd.

The 2024 Republican presidential candidate entered Falls Church’s decades-old Vietnamese mall to promote his own party and visited Truong Tien, a small, wood-framed upstart restaurant specializing in Hue’s royal cuisine. About 35 guests, including campaign staff, media members and waiters, crowded into the dining room to hear him speak briefly — but not to actually see him eat.

Dressed in a familiar suit and bright red tie, Trump strolled in and almost immediately announced to the cameras and the invite-only crowd: “The Vietnamese community loves me and I love them.” Chants of “USA!” then rang out.

Open since fall 2023, chef and owner Thanh Huong Thi Truong’s eponymous restaurant stands out in a maze of banh mi and pho restaurants. “Their food is a little different than other restaurants in the Eden Center,” says Alan Frank, senior vice president of the commercial complex. The royal cuisine dates back to the Nguyen dynasty of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the ancient imperial city of Hue.

“I’m going to buy something nice,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t know what it is.” Washington Post Food reporter Tim Carman found out what was on offer for Monday’s dinner. The restaurant’s business consultant, Toan Ngo, says Trump opted for banh khoai (rice flour bowls filled with shrimp and mung bean sprouts), bun thit nuong (cold vermicelli with grilled pork and herbs) and the popular seven-dish rice tasting menu.

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According to a 2023 Pew Research Center poll, about half of Vietnamese Americans surveyed were Republicans or Republican-leaning independents. “Sometimes it seems that the Vietnamese community favors the GOP, but maybe that’s because GOP supporters seem to be more vocal than Democrats,” Frank says. Republican voters also stand out “in a heavily Democratic Falls Church,” he adds.

He says Trump’s impromptu appearance was planned within days and coordinated by two Virginia Republicans: Can Nguyen, an associate professor at George Mason University, and Hung Cao – a Vietnamese refugee, retired U.S. Navy captain and Trump-backed candidate vying for a state Senate seat in the fall.

“I hope your community comes out and supports (Cao) 100 percent,” said Trump, who quickly parlayed his brief campaign support into his own. “We want to win the state … which traditionally isn’t necessarily something Republicans do — but I’m not your average Republican,” he said.

Frank confirmed that Trump did not dine on site and speculated as to why: “I don’t think the Secret Service would allow it.” (Of course, several other U.S. presidents and candidates also dine at restaurants in Washington, DC.)

Frank reports that his campaign left the door with “several large” to-go bags. Ngo tells WaPo The bill came to $60 and Trump is said to have left a generous tip that was “several times” the bill.

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Andrew Peng, the Harris-Waltz campaign spokesperson for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, responded to the hypocritical undertones of Trump’s visit with the remark. “He stoked hatred against Asians during the pandemic, the unemployment rate among Asian Americans has nearly doubled under his leadership, and his rhetoric has fueled discrimination against small, community-owned businesses like those at the Eden Center,” Peng said in a statement to WaPo.

The sprawling, multi-building shopping center, run almost exclusively by first- to third-generation Vietnamese families, is home to more than 30 restaurants and over a dozen bakeries and cafes.

The brief event ended well before noon, and according to press reports about the visit, the restaurant saw a 300 percent increase in sales (Frank also observed “lots” of visitors to the Eden Center in the afternoon). However, the critically acclaimed Truong Tien doesn’t need a celebrity guest like Trump to attract diners, and the Eden Center as a whole is doing quite well right now. Of its 115 locations, only one small business is currently available, according to Frank.

He does, however, need to see some turnover at the Eden Center. “Unfortunately, we are losing Crabby Noodles because it was sold to a fancy banh mi restaurant from Boston,” he says, declining to name the new tenant. The short-lived eatery opened last fall with a Vietnamese and Cajun-style seafood menu that includes a lot of crab meat.

The Eden Centre, the crown jewel of a bustling shopping district known as the East End, remains the focus of the city’s long-term redevelopment plan. Yet the stalled proposal shows no sign of having a negative long-term impact on the booming centre. “It’s gathering dust while we keep doing more and more to improve the Eden Centre,” says Frank.