The urgent note Donald Trump was given by the Secretary of State during a White House event has been exposed.
President Trump, 79, was hosting a roundtable event with conservative influencers and journalists where they discussed the likes of Antifa - a leaderless affiliation of mostly far-left activists - as Marco Rubio, 54, stood in the corner of the Blue Room on Wednesday (8 October).
Rubio wanted to pass on some important news to the Republican leader, but Trump initially pushed back and wanted to carry on with the event, which had been going on for an hour at that point.
Although Trump signalled that he would prefer for it to wait until after the media had left the room, his colleague instead decided to pass on a note.
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Despite possible attempts to keep it hidden, an AP photographer managed to capture a zoomed-in photo of the handwritten note on White House stationery.
It read: "You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first."
After giving it a quick glance, Trump announced to the room: "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."
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The note came after Trump said he plans to travel to the Middle East 'towards the end of the week', as peace talks between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas continue.
But even after the President told journalists that he was leaving, he continued to talk and take questions.
10 minutes later, he said: "I have to go now to try and solve some problems in the Middle East — 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."
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Trump then said Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would take questions in his absence.
"We’re gonna get peace in the Middle East," he added. "That’s what we want to do."
Taking to Truth Social afterwards, he announced that 'Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan'.
He said the hostages will be released 'very soon' and that Israel with withdraw their army 'to an agreed-upon line'.
The president added: "This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen.
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"BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!"
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics
Anish Vij