When Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the truculent White House Press secretary, was asked how Donald Trump had taken the news that three former campaign advisers had been charged in the special counsel’s Russia investigation, her reply was brusque. “He responded the same way the rest of us in the White House have—that is, without a lot of reaction, because it doesn’t have anything to do with us.”

Those who have spoken to sources inside the West Wing, however, paint a different picture: of a president fuming over the indictments and consumed by cable news coverage, oscillating furiously between “media critic, legal analyst, and crisis communications strategist,” as The Washington Post reports.

Although the White House had been anticipating charges in Robert Mueller’s “witch hunt” for months, news that one former adviser, George Papadopoulos, had pleaded guilty, and begun working with the F.B.I., exploded like a bomb. Rising before dawn and gluing himself to his television, Trump at first felt vindicated by the charges against Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, which were seemingly unconnected to Russia. “NO COLLUSION!” he tweeted triumphantly, after he spoke with his lawyers. Others were reportedly relieved that the first batch of indictments did not include Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn. (Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty.)

But the president’s mood darkened after hearing that Papadopoulos had, apparently, turned state’s witness. “The walls are closing in,” one senior Republican in close contact with top staffers told the Post, echoing other sources who described Trump as angry and agitated. “Everyone is freaking out.” The New York Times reported that White House aides were “stunned and alarmed.”

Other West Wing sources were more sanguine. There wasn’t “as much of a freakout as you might think,” one official told Politico. While Trump was fixated on the Russia investigation all day, he is said to have been reassured by his lawyers that Mueller won’t threaten him personally, even if he indicts former Trump associates, and will ultimately clear the president’s name. His legal team has urged the investigation to proceed swiftly so that it can be concluded by the end of the year.

Papadopoulos’s guilty plea, and subsequent cooperation with the F.B.I., could upend that timetable—as could the arrests of Manafort and Gates. The overriding assumption is that Mueller believes that the pair have information relating to Trump, which he intends to leverage. As legal experts have told Vanity Fair, the special prosecutor appears to be following a classic anti-mafia playbook: begin by targeting lower-level staffers, then work your way up, using compromising information or legal threats to compel testimony against their higher-ups. Gates, apparently, is a point of particular concern. Possibly facing years in jail, he has a young family, and continued to be involved with the Trump administration after the president was sworn in.

As the fractious situation unfolded, and immediately choked the media cycle, there was widespread frustration among the G.O.P. Yet again, Russia had dominated the start of carefully planned week of policy news, in which Republicans are preparing to unveil their tax overhaul bill and Trump is set to depart on a pivotal, 12-day trip across Asia. It’s not the first time that Trump has flown overseas under a cloud of scandal. The day before he embarked upon his first presidential foreign trip in May, the Justice Department appointed Mueller as special counsel.

Trump’s allies are divided over how he should respond to the indictments. Chief of Staff John Kelly, along with Trump lawyers Ty Cobb, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, reportedly advised the president to respond cautiously, and emphasized that Mueller should not be fired. “Nothing about today’s events alters anything related to our engagement with the special counsel, with whom we continue to cooperate,” Cobb said, according to the Post. “There are no discussions and there is no consideration being given to terminating Mueller.” Instead, they appear to have opted on a method of deflection, ramping up Republican efforts to shift attention towards Clinton. Last night, Kelly declared on Fox News that an investigation was needed to probe funding from Clinton’s campaign and the DNC for the research behind the Trump/Russia dossier, and Clinton’s involvement in the Uranium One deal, adding that he thought Mueller’s investigation should “wrap up soon.” Sekulow told ABC News on Tuesday morning, “I have not had a conversation with the president regarding pardons and pardons are not on the table.”

Others, including the nationalist-populist gadfly Steve Bannon, urged the president to aggressively push back. “Source close to Bannon tells @DanaBashCNN he wants Trump to go to war versus Mueller,” tweeted CNN’s Manu Raju.“The Dowd/ Cobb play nice strategy is an epic failure.”

Although yesterday’s news was not as damaging as expected, Mueller’s opening bid was a robust display of strength. By simultaneously presenting a surprise cooperating witness from inside Trump’s campaign, alongside accusations of criminality on the part of Trump’s former campaign manager, he laid out an intimidating blueprint of his coming plans.