PHOTOS: Donald Trump And Melania Trump In Hawaii Ahead Of Asia Visit

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump stopped in Hawaii on Friday on the eve of the president’s first official visit to Asia.

Arriving at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Trump stopped for a briefing at Pacific Command, the U.S. military’s headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region, and later toured the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

According to the Seattle Times, Trump was expected to be briefed by leaders of the U.S. Pacific Command on topics including the growing threat from North Korea. Trump was also meeting with the governors of Alaska, Hawaii and Pacific U.S. territories, all of which are considered potential targets of any successful attempt by North Korea to strike the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped missile.

"I tell you, this is very special being in Hawaii," Trump said as he visited Pacific Command before traveling with First Lady Melania Trump to the USS Arizona memorial.

The Trump’s were joined by White House Chief of Staff Gen. John F. Kelly, national security advisor H.R. McMaster and Adm. Harry Harris of Pacific Command. Trump said it would be "exciting" to see Pearl Harbor, the Los Angeles Times reported. "I’ve read about, spoken about, heard about, studied, but I haven’t seen. And that is going to be very exciting for me," he said.

At the memorial, which marks the final resting place of more than 1,000 sailors and Marines who were killed on the battleship during the surprise Japanese attack during World War II, the couple laid wreaths near a wall of names of the fallen soldiers.

They then tossed white flower petals into the waters above the battleship’s sunken hull after which the president looked down to the wreckage visible near the surface of the water.

The visit comes after criticism recently faced by the president over his attempt to console the families of four soldiers killed in a Niger ambush last month. The members of the families said he insulted them when he called to offer condolences.

Trump was also met by protesters in Honululu, the largest group of whom had gathered in front of the state Capitol, where demonstrators banged drums and chanted against Trump’s travel ban, which a Honululu-based federal judge had struck down for the third time last month. Some even mocked Trump’s claim that former president Barack Obama was not born in Hawaii.

Some of the placards read: "Welcome to Kenya" and "No, Trump, HI is Obama’s birthplace." Other signs read, “aloha also means goodbye” and “so bad you make Bush look good."

"The idea of the aloha spirit is that we welcome everyone who comes here. But when there’s a leader whose whole M.O. seems to be making America a less welcoming place for whole groups of people, that’s where we need to draw the line," Ing, a 28-year-old Native Hawaiian, told the LA Times. "He’s simply not welcome."

The president departs Saturday morning for Japan, where he will meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, before traveling to South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.