Footage appearing to show the impact of an agitated Donald Trump dressing down top aides Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus on Friday actually depicted fallout from the president directing his ire at White House counsel Don McGahn, according to three sources familiar with the tense meeting.

'He was chewing out the White House counsel about Sessions,' a senior administration official told DailyMail.com on Monday, referring to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' move a day earlier to recuse himself from federal investigations linking Russian officials with Trump campaign personnel.

Sessions' move came hours after Trump said he had 'total' confidence in Sessions, and shortly after White House press secretary Sean Spicer pre-recorded a Fox news Channel interview for Friday broadcast in which he said there was no reason for Sessions to step away.

McGahn absorbed most of Hurricane Donald's force after the president found Wednesday's glowing media coverage – following his well-received speech to a Joint session of Congress – crowded out by the Sessions mini-scandal.

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White House Counsel Don McGahn, shown in January in the Trump Tower lobby, was the target of Donald Trump's ire – not senior aides Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon – during a rage-filled Friday dressing-down in the Oval Office

Footage emerged of chief White House strategist Steve Bannon during that shout-fest, as he appeared to drop an F-bomb at someone to the camera's left

The president's explosive lecture was originally thought to have been aimed at chief of staff Reince Priebus (left) and Bannon (right), but senior administration officials say that's not how it played out

While it is not clear what the discussion was about, Bannon was filmed in an animated conversation and at one point was spotted waving his arms around.

Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Sean Spicer were spotted in the background of the footage.

Trump had accused his staff of fumbling the situations with Sessions after the attorney general recused himself from all FBI investigations regarding Russia on Thursday.

The president is said to have then taken it out on his senior staff the following day.

Sources said to CNN the Oval Office lecture had a 'lot of expletives' and that 'nobody has seen him that upset'.

Earlier reporting described Friday's shout-fest as a rebuke of Bannon and Priebus. But an official close to McGahn confirmed that the longtime Trump lawyer was one of the aides in the president's crosshairs.

'That's about right,' the McGahn associate said. 'He was mad at Don.'

Trump, that source said, complained that the White House counsel's office should have huddled with Sessions before his announcement to reassure him that the president would stand behind him if he resisted calls to recuse himself.

Instead the president was 'forced to play defense on Thursday instead of offense,' a third administration official said of the fallout from Sessions' announcement, 'and his mood Friday was about as bad as it gets.'

McGahan did not respond to a request for comment. He does not appear in the CNN video, which was shot through an Oval Office window.

McGahn, shown here (center) on Inauguration Day, caught the worst of Trump's tirade, according to senior White House officials

A furious Trump headed to Florida on Friday without Bannon and Priebus, but they were knee-deep in Justice Department and Obamacare business – not in the doghouse

Jared Kushner (right) was also present in the Oval Office when Steve Bannon was filmed in an animated conversation

Ivanka Trump (left with her back to the door) was in the room, too, along with Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Communications Director Mike Dubke

Bannon is shown in the CNN video yelling at someone and dropping an apparent F-bomb. He did not respond to a request to identify who he was reprimanding.

As the video unfolds, Trump adviser Jared Kushner – Ivanka's husband – takes up position in Bannon's line of fire, near his wife Ivanka Trump.

Bannon was there to calm the president down on Friday, the first official said.

'He was on blast mode,' that source said of the president's reaction to the attorney general's unexpected decision, and 'hitting the White House counsel for not explaining it better.'

The three administration officials were granted anonymity to speak freely about Friday's events.

All of them cast doubt on earlier reports that Bannon and Priebus were both left in the White House's doghouse when Trump left town for Florida on Friday afternoon.

The power pair did remain behind in Washington. But neither man, a second official said, was being put in a corner.

In particular, the first official said, 'this had nothing to do with Reince.'

Priebus, one official said, stayed in D.C. to work Friday night working with White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and House Republicans, hammering out details of the coming Obamacare replacement bill.

Bannon remained behind along with McGahn to help Sessions connect his recusal decision with what he told the Senate Judiciary Committee during his January confirmation hearing.

That hearing saw then-Senator Sessions deny that he had met with Russian officials during the presidential campaign, even though he had at least one meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

After the reported blowout, Trump left for his estate in Florida with his grandchildren on Friday; Bannon, McGahn and Jeff Sessions followed him on Saturday

Sessions said later that he took that meeting in his capacity as a senator, not as a campaign aide.

But his Justice Department aides later persuaded him to back away from any Russia-related probes that might involve the campaign, which he advised at immigration and homeland security matters.

Sessions, McGahn and Bannon flew to Florida together on Saturday afternoon, where they participated in dinnertime discussions related to Monday's rollout of a replacement travel-ban executive order.

Separately, Trump was also briefed Saturday about what one official called 'the fact pattern' behind Sessions' decision Thursday.

First daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, press secretary Sean Spicer and newly minted communications director Mike Dubke were also in the Oval office when sparks flew on Friday.