Morning Note

Senior White House officials provided an inside look at what cameras didn’t capture during the Trump-Zelensky meeting on Friday, offering insight on just how extraordinary the botched event was. 

“This was set up to be like every other state visit,” a senior aide reportedly recalled. “This was an Oval Office spray, [there’d be] the cordial handshake and take a couple questions and then go on to lunch.” 

Staff expected the presidents to give opening remarks, take questions, then continue negotiations behind closed doors. That plan went up in smoke when Zelensky arrived and immediately started pressing Trump for security guarantees, which the U.S. chief executive had repeatedly said would not be included in their mineral agreement. Then the fireworks went off in the Oval.

Read all the details, including what happened after the heated exchange, here.