The AP reporter who witnessed Marco Rubio hand President Donald Trump an urgent note regarding his social media has detailed what exactly happened.
During an October 8 meeting on Antifa, Secretary of State Rubio slipped quietly into the room — and moments later, into history when he handed a handwritten note of clear importance to Trump.
Associated Press photojournalist Nathan Ellgren, who was there to capture the event, noticed something unusual before anyone else did, and recalled what happened at the scene in a recording that can now be seen at the outlet’s YouTube video.
Ellgren said: “I noticed in the back of the room, Secretary Rubio had stepped in but hadn’t come to the table to sit down.
Advert
“Usually, he has a very calm demeanor, and for some reason, he seemed in a hurry.”
Ellgren explained that, as a photographer, he’s trained to watch for anything that feels out of place, so when he saw Rubio pick up a notepad and start writing, he sensed something was about to happen.
He recalled: “As he wrote the whole note, I had my lens on him the entire time. When he ripped the note off, I was able to capture what it actually had written down.”
Advert
The note, which Rubio then handed to Trump before leaning in to whisper something in his ear, read: “You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”
The deal being referred to was the peace deal brokered between Hamas and the Israeli government, of which Trump had quite a hand in.
Ellgren said he ‘knew immediately that whatever that note said was going to be important’, and moments later, his instincts proved right.
Advert
Trump paused mid-discussion, telling the gathered reporters: “I was just given a note by the secretary of state saying that we’re very close to a deal on the Middle East, and they’re gonna need me pretty quickly. So we’ll take a couple of more questions.”
Ten minutes later, he wrapped up the conference, adding with a grin: “Although I’m very well represented by our secretary of state. He could probably do an even better job than me, but who knows. We don’t want to take any chances. So we’re going to go and do that.”
Two hours after the meeting ended, Trump’s Truth Social account published a statement announcing that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the 'first Phase of our Peace Plan', with the release of hostages and Israeli troop withdrawals as part of the deal.
For Ellgren, the sequence of events confirmed his hunch, as he continued to say: “I went immediately to my files and looked through it…It ended up becoming huge.”
Topics: Donald Trump, Truth Social, Social Media, Politics, US News
Ben Williams