--- title: Trump Says It's 'Calm Before The Storm' at Military Event description: While posing with a group of military leaders at the White House Thursday, President Donald Trump said " it's the calm before the storm." canonical: https://time.com/4971738/donald-trump-calm-before-the-storm-military-white-house/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-06T00:44:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:45:38.565Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Warns of 'the Calm Before the Storm' During Military Meeting og:description: And he wouldn't explain his comment og:url: https://time.com/4971738/donald-trump-calm-before-the-storm-military-white-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c5dee026298c99d/6988e0be196cf46c43042353/trump-military-leaders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Trump Participates In Briefing With Senior Military Leaders og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Warns of 'the Calm Before the Storm' During Military Meeting twitter:description: And he wouldn't explain his comment twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c5dee026298c99d/6988e0be196cf46c43042353/trump-military-leaders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Warns of 'the Calm Before the Storm' During Military Meeting > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Oct 6, 2017 12:44 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump, center left, and U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, center right, stand for an official photograph with senior military leaders and spouses in the State Dining room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017\. President Trump and the First Lady are hosting the group for dinner in the Blue Room of the White House. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump, center left, and U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, center right, stand for an official photograph with senior military leaders and spouses in the State Dining room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017\. President Trump and the First Lady are hosting the group for dinner in the Blue Room of the White House. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Oct 6, 2017 12:44 AM UTC [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4968414/trump-puerto-rico-debt-wipe-out-hurricane-maria/) warned of “the calm before the storm” while posing with a group of military leaders at the White House Thursday. “You guys know what this represents?” Trump said to a group of reporters while photos were being taken, [according a pool report](https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/916088087817711617). “Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.” When asked what he meant, Trump replied, “You’ll find out.” Trump’s remarks occurred during a photo opportunity with senior military officials and their spouses on Thursday night. At the White House, Trump held a briefing with those leaders and a dinner afterward with them and their spouses. According to a transcript of the briefing, Trump mentioned several issues of national security facing the U.S. “Recently, we have had challenges that we really should have taken care of a long time ago, like North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, ISIS and the revisionist powers that threaten our interests all around the world,” Trump said. “Tremendous progress has been made with respect to ISIS, and I guess the media is going to be finding out about that over the next short period of time.” Amid anonymously sourced [reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-plans-to-declare-that-iran-nuclear-deal-is-not-in-the-national-interest/2017/10/05/825c916e-a9e3-11e7-b3aa-c0e2e1d41e38%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.623fd7ef00d0) on Thursday that Trump plans to “decertify” the Iran nuclear deal next week, the President said the U.S. “must put an end to Iran’s continued aggression and nuclear ambitions.” “They have not lived up to the spirit of their agreement,” he added. “And we will be discussing that tonight.” Trump did not clarify his comments when a reporter asked if he was referring to either Iran or ISIS. Due to their cryptic nature, Trump’s comments had some people on social media expressing confusion, fear and bafflement. > [](https://twitter.com/chesse47/status/916085767251939330) > [](https://twitter.com/milenaac/status/916092373301694464) > [](https://twitter.com/Northquahog48/status/916090018942332928) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4971738/donald-trump-calm-before-the-storm-military-white-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4971738/donald-trump-calm-before-the-storm-military-white-house/"},"headline":"President Trump Warns of 'the Calm Before the Storm' During Military Meeting","datePublished":"2017-10-06T00:44:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:45:38.565Z","description":"And he wouldn't explain his comment","url":"https://time.com/4971738/donald-trump-calm-before-the-storm-military-white-house/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c5dee026298c99d/6988e0be196cf46c43042353/trump-military-leaders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4c5dee026298c99d/6988e0be196cf46c43042353/trump-military-leaders.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Participates In Briefing With Senior Military Leaders","caption":"President Trump Participates In Briefing With Senior Military Leaders","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4971738/donald-trump-calm-before-the-storm-military-white-house/","name":"President Trump Warns of 'the Calm Before the Storm' During Military Meeting"}}]}] ```