Donald Trump on Monday had an odd way of praising Republican Senate candidate Hung Cao at a Vietnamese restaurant in Virginia.
“This is a great gentleman. I love his name: Hung Cao. I love that name. And that name alone can get you elected,” Trump said at the Truong Tien restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia, as he stood with Cao.
Cao, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Virginia, came to the United States from Vietnam as a refugee in 1975. The retired U.S. Navy captain will face longtime Sen. Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s former running mate in her 2016 presidential campaign, in November.
Trump, in a bid to build on inroads the Republican Party has made with Asian voters, made the surprise stop at Eden Center, the Vietnamese shopping and dining destination, to court Vietnamese voters.
“I’m going to buy something beautiful,” Trump said to about 35 people who were inside Truong Tien in the afternoon. “I don’t know what it is.”