Close-ups of Trump’s handwritten notes on impeachment hearing go viral

Close-up images of the handwritten notes President Trump had in front him Wednesday while speaking to the press about the ongoing public impeachment hearings are going viral online.

In photos of the notes, which the president read from during his remarks to the media on Wednesday afternoon, Trump details a September exchange he had with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland about Ukraine, which the official also discussed in his testimony. 

One sheet of the notes that is making the rounds describes a point during the conversation in which Trump said he told Sondland that he wanted “nothing” from Ukraine.   

“I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zellinsky [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] to do the right thing. This is the final word from the pres of the U.S,” the page reads in all caps and thick black marker.

Viral reactions to the notes have prompted the phrase “I WANT NOTHING” to trend on Twitter.

Irrelevant but Trump’s notes to himself always look so much like the poems my blind 93-year-old grandmother writes in sharpie and mails us on holidays and birthdays pic.twitter.com/66DRRhKpRJ

— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) November 20, 2019

I keep reading this in the tone of “Frère Jacques”

I want no-thing
I want no-thing
I want no
Quid pro quo https://t.co/LqE8RQrZmZ

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) November 20, 2019

Zellinsky https://t.co/8KHuSTWm3W

— Philip Bump (@pbump) November 20, 2019

Have to say this is a weird Christmas list. pic.twitter.com/QPGt3QxerM

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) November 20, 2019

“I want nothing” would be an easier sell without “I need a favor, though.” pic.twitter.com/pZUXS3FUI4

— Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) November 20, 2019

can’t believe he started his set with “i want nothing” back to back https://t.co/aV9QQca9gs

— Rembert Browne (@rembert) November 20, 2019

I want nothing
I want nothing
I want no quid pro quo
I gotta go pic.twitter.com/2stOJU0WTV

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) November 20, 2019

Trump appears to have scribbled down some of Sondland’s testimony in Sharpie in all caps:
“I WANT NOTHING”
“I WANT NOTHING”
“I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO” https://t.co/RluDgsMT5K

— Brett Samuels (@Brett_Samuels27) November 20, 2019

Trump reiterated those sentiments while speaking aloud to reporters about the conversation on Wednesday.

“I want nothing. That’s what I want from Ukraine,” he said. “I want nothing — I said it twice.”

His remarks came shortly after Sondland, during his public testimony before lawmakers on Wednesday morning, detailed the Sept. 9 conversation he had with Trump about his interests in Ukraine.

{mosads}”I believe I just asked him an open-ended question, Mr. Chairman,” Sondland recalled of the conversation with Trump. “I kept hearing all these different ideas and theories, and this and that. What do you want?”

“And it was a very short, abrupt conversation and he was not in a good mood, and he just said, ‘I want nothing, I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do the right thing.’ Something to that effect,” Sondland continued. 

Trump said the testimony from Sondland meant that the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry centered around his dealings in Ukraine should be “all over.”

“That means it’s all over,” Trump said. “What do you want from Ukraine, he asks me, screaming. What do you want from Ukraine? I keep seeing all these ideas and theories.”

He also pushed back against Sondland’s assertion that he was in a “bad mood” during the exchange.

“I’m always in a good mood. I don’t know what that is,” Trump said.

The September call between Trump and Sondland occurred a couple of months after the July 25 call Trump had with Zelensky, which is at the center of the House’s impeachment inquiry.