The intimate gathering of White House staffers was a sign of the relief that flooded through the West Wing after the stress of an investigation that loomed for years was lifted.

But the days that followed Sunday’s champagne-clinking in Sanders’ office came as a surprise to multiple people in the West Wing, according to interviews with half a dozen officials and Trump associates.

There was no Rose Garden celebration ceremony. Trump gave no speech declaring vindication in the East Room. Instead, he made brief remarks before he climbed the steps of Air Force One and was whisked away to Washington.

Even as the victory laps and vows for vengeance continued apace, there were signs of confusion in Trump’s policy objectives.

Tuesday’s surprising announcement the administration would ask a court to invalidate the entire health law known as Obamacare came before anyone in the White House had put in place a strategy for passing a replacement.

It came over the objections of senior Cabinet officials, who questioned the political and legal wisdom of scrapping popular components of the measure without a clear plan to restore them during a heated Oval Office meeting on Monday.

Ultimately, Trump followed the advice not of Cabinet members most closely aligned with the issue, but of his West Wing advisers — principally the acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a former Republican congressman — who regard the move as a way to force Congress into acting on health care after repeal and replace efforts failed in 2017.