He ‘Went Rogue’: President Trump’s Staff Stunned After Latest Charlottesville Remarks

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The ensuing exchange inside the lobby of Trump Tower between reporters and the president over the white nationalist rally and counter-protest in Charlottesville became one of the most extraordinary moments in a presidency that’s seen plenty of them.

To Trump’s aides, it was stunning. Multiple sources inside and close to the White House described the president's senior staff as confused and frustrated, caught off guard by Trump's decision to defend his initial response to the violence in Virginia.

He “went rogue,” one senior White House official told NBC News.

The president’s team had choreographed a plan: He would descend the golden elevators of Trump Tower and step to the lectern in the lobby, flanked by his Treasury secretary, his Transportation secretary and his top economic adviser. He would highlight the infrastructure executive order he had just signed, and then he’d leave — head back upstairs and deploy his aides to handle any inquiries.

That’s the plan officials prepared reporters for as members of the media gathered in the lobby as they had so often during the president-elect Trump's transition. The president had been unusually talkative the week prior during appearances at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and he was again ready to battle with reporters.

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