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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump delivered a foreboding message Thursday night, telling reporters as he posed for photos with his senior military leaders that this might be “the calm before the storm.”

White House reporters were summoned suddenly Thursday evening and told the president had decided he wanted the press to document a dinner he was holding with the military leaders and their wives.

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Reporters were led hastily to the grand State Dining Room, where they walked into a scene of the president, his highest-ranking military aides and their wives posing for a group photo. The cameras clicked and they smiled. A joke was made about someone’s face being tired. Live classical music played.

Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images

Then, Trump gestured to the reporters in the room.

“You guys know what this represents?” Trump asked. “Maybe it’s the calm before the storm. Could be the calm, the calm before the storm.”

“What storm Mr. President?” one reporter shouted. ISIS? North Korea? Iran?

“You’ll find out,” the president said.

He also praised those assembled for the photo, saying: “We have the world’s great military people in this room, I will tell you that.”

Earlier in the evening, the White House communications team had told reporters that the president would not make any more appearances that day – but then, around 7:10 p.m., those who happened to still be at the White House were summoned to the State Dining Room to briefly witness the photo-taking session.