As much as official Washington has become numb to the daily offenses of Donald Trump, there was something uniquely disturbing about the president’s transgressions in Helsinki. After months of combating Trump’s attempts to align himself with Vladimir Putin, the president was alone and unguarded with the man he had long sought to meet. National Security Adviser John Bolton, among other Russia hawks, had traveled with Trump to Finland in preparation for the summit. But when Trump and Putin entered the gilded Hall of State at the Presidential Palace for a joint press conference, the result was a shocking display of servility. Repudiating the hardline positions of his aides and advisers, Trump exonerated Putin for hacking the 2016 election—and put the blame on “foolish” Americans for driving the United States and Russia apart.

Days later, insiders who know Bolton are still struggling to explain how the man who’s advocated violent regime change in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea could have allowed his boss to bend the knee before one of America’s greatest geopolitical adversaries. “I’m stumped,” said a former high-ranking State Department official. “The John Bolton I remember from the past was a strong hawk. So either he’s changed, or the president isn’t listening to him or taking his advice on how to deal with Russia.” A second erstwhile colleague, also a former senior State Department official, concurred. “The John Bolton I know would have been more horrified than I am over what happened,” this person told me. “I mean, he must just be pulling his forelock practically out of his head in order to maintain the ‘Oh you’re so great’ and ‘Mr. President, oh you’re the best.’ That’s the only thing that works with this birdbrain, and he must be doing it over and over and over again.”

Bolton isn’t the only senior Trump adviser who has been sidelined or subordinated. Defense Secretary James Mattis, an outspoken critic of Moscow, has not appeared in public or made any comments since Monday’s press conference, and the Pentagon has been unable to answer questions about the summit. Top military officials remain largely in the dark about what Trump and Putin discussed. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Thursday that he “[doesn’t] know what happened in that meeting” and “would’ve suggested a different way.”

Trump flanked by Mike Pompeo and Jim Mattis during a cabinet meeting. Evan Vucci/AP/REX/Shutterstock

Meanwhile, in Foggy Bottom, the mood has only darkened since the president attempted to “clarify” his remarks made in Helsinki. “It was so transparently false and done under duress,” a current State Department official told me. “This is uncharted territory in terms of figuring out how you proceed on a whole number of issues when the leadership has gone so completely awry. It is just so stupid and senseless. No one seems to have any idea what to do or pursue following the meeting.” (A spokesperson for the National Security Council told me that they are still “reviewing the discussion between President Trump and President Putin, considering possible next steps, and have nothing further to announce at this time.”)

As the post-summit fallout continues, however, these foot soldiers of the Deep State are coming to a chilling realization: nobody has any control over Trump—including Trump himself. For the legion of national-security, diplomatic, and military officials trying to smile while white-knuckling through the Trump presidency, Helsinki was a wake-up call. As a current administration official explained, Trump seems to believe that he alone can sit down with dictators and strongmen like Putin and Kim Jong Un to remake the world order—and experts and advisers will only slow him down. “I don’t know anyone who thought the summit was a good idea ahead of time,” this person told me. “There is a reason why we tried to slow-roll/kill this idea . . . The president might think it’s us being ‘Deep-Staters,’ but the reality is we were trying to protect him. It was a bad idea from all sides: policy and politics.”