It was the most disciplined and focused episode so far of “chopper time,” as President Trump’s informal South Lawn news conferences have come to be known.
With the propeller of Marine One whirring in the background, Trump used handwritten notes to quote his European Union ambassador who minutes earlier had testified that the president wanted no “quid pro quo” with Ukraine.
He spoke for about 150 seconds and then was gone. He took no questions, in a sign that a more regimented White House approach to hitting back at the impeachment proceedings is rubbing off on the president.
“Instead of the long Q&A that he usually does, he got straight to the point of what he thinks,” said a former White House official.
Trump arrived at the South Lawn clutching a sheaf of papers, including notes of Gordon Sondland’s comments minutes earlier.
“’What do you want from Ukraine?’” he said, quoting Sondland. “’I keep hearing all these different ideas and theories. What do you want? What do you want?’”
He flipped the page on his notes for emphasis, revealing a page of text written in capital letters with a Sharpie.
“Here’s my response that he gave … that he just gave,” said Trump, talking about the testimony. “Ready. You have the cameras rolling?
“’I want nothing. That’s what I want from Ukraine … that’s what I said. I want nothing. I said it twice.’”
He held up two fingers to make the point.
“‘I said to the ambassador in response, I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky, President Zelensky to do the right thing,'” he added, as he quoted the testimony, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
After two and a half minutes, he was off, en route to an Apple factory in Austin, Texas, where he was not even scheduled to make official remarks.
It was an unusually brief appearance by a president who usually delights in sparring with reporters. His Twitter account was similarly restrained throughout the day, limited mostly to retweeting the comments of allies or repeating the Sondland quotes. In contrast, last week, he mocked one of the key witnesses, Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine.
A source with knowledge of the White House strategy said the president wanted to ensure that the best lines were emphasized in headlines and TV clips.
“When the president sends such a clear message before getting on the aircraft without taking questions, it’s a clear sign that those are the lines that he wants reiterated,” said the official.
“When you see the Twitter feeds of the campaign, our side of things, the RNC, we all have that exchange: ‘Sondland: What do you want from Ukraine? POTUS: I want nothing. No quid pro quo. Period.’ That’s a telltale sign of the messaging the president wants.”
White House officials declined to comment on the strategy.
However, the past two weeks have brought a string of changes, with new hires and greater coordination between the White House and allied groups.
The White House recently appointed former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Treasury Department official Tony Sayegh to oversee counter messaging operations.
That was on display when public hearings began last week. Trump allies were bombarded with talking points as testimony unfolded on live television. A White House team sent out emails — at times as frequently as every five minutes — with key quotations, fact-checks, and headlines.
