Trump makes a rare restaurant visit to court the Vietnamese vote

On Monday, to the surprise of many, the former president made a visit to the Eden Center, the Vietnamese shopping and dining destination in Falls Church, Va., where he gave a short campaign speech and sampled dishes from Truong Tien, an exquisite jewel box of a restaurant that specializes in Hue royal cuisine.

“I’m going to buy something beautiful,” Trump said to those inside the restaurant. “I don’t know what it is.”

Among other dishes, Trump ordered banh khoai, a trio of rice-flour shells stuffed with shrimp, mung-bean sprouts and more, which are wrapped in lettuce leaves and served in a taco tray, according to Toan Ngo, a business consultant to Truong Tien. Trump also requested bun thit nuong, a cold vermicelli dish topped with grilled pork and fresh herbs, as well as “rice with seven dishes,” a sampler that shows off chef and owner Thanh Huong Thi Truong’s facility with imperial cooking.

Trump, according to his campaign, ordered all the dishes to go. The campaign did not respond to a question about what Trump thought of the food. The former president’s diet tends to lean more American than Vietnamese: “On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke,” wrote a pair of top aides, Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, in their book “Let Trump Be Trump.”

Trump’s appearance at Truong Tien was arranged in part by Can Nguyen, a Republican activist and an adjunct professor at George Mason University, said Alan Frank, senior vice president of the Eden Center. Nguyen could not be reached for comment.

The appearance was also arranged by Hung Cao, a retired U.S. Navy captain and a Vietnamese refugee who fled his home country in 1975. Cao won his Republican primary in Virginia and will face Sen. Tim Kaine (D) for a U.S. Senate seat. Trump used his stop at the Eden Center to endorse Cao.

“President Trump continues to make outreach to all communities, especially those that have not been served well by the disastrous Harris-Biden administration,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in an email.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

About 35 people were crowded inside the small, wood-heavy dining room, which features illuminated photos of the Ngo Mon Gate that leads to the imperial city of Hue, where royal cuisine sprang to life during the Nguyen dynasty of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Everyone inside the restaurant was there by invitation, said Frank, who was present for the event. Some were media members, some campaign staff, some servers at the restaurant.

“Somehow, I don’t know what it is, you’ll have to explain it, but the Vietnamese community loves me, and I love them,” Trump said as some onlookers broke into chants of “USA!”

A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that about half of Vietnamese American registered voters were Republicans or Republican-leaning independents, making them more likely to affiliate with Republicans than other Asian Americans. A majority of Asians overall identified as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents in the same poll. The Eden Center has frequently been a campaign stop for both Republican and Democratic candidates looking to court the Vietnamese vote, Frank said.

“The older Vietnamese community seems to prefer the GOP,” Frank noted in a text exchange. “The younger Vietnamese community prefers the Democratic candidates.”

Trump’s visit presented something of a political hot potato for Troung Tien, Ngo told The Washington Post. Ngo said he advised Truong, the owner, to treat Trump as she would any other diner. He suggested she stay away from the kind of partisan politics that can affect her business, which has had its share of diners from the Biden administration, too. He said he told Truong: “Don’t say anything. Don’t kiss the ring. Don’t do nothing.”

Ngo knows from personal experience that Trump can be divisive: He said he and his father, a Trump supporter, did not speak for nearly a month because of their political differences over the former president. As for Truong, Ngo described her as “Switzerland” when asked which way she leans on Trump.

In a video clip from Fox 5, Truong can be seen standing next to Trump as the former president delivers his standard campaign broadsides. When Trump congratulated Truong on her success, she smiled, kept her hands clasped in front of her and said little. Her reticence may also have been because of her limited English-language skills. Ngo served as an interpreter when I interviewed her last year for The Post’s review of Truong Tien.

The bill for Trump’s lunch came to about $60, Ngo said. Trump left a sizable tip, but Ngo declined to share the exact amount. He said it was many times the size of the bill.

Trump’s visit had another dividend. Ngo said sales were up 300 percent Monday.

Emily Guskin contributed to this report.