As what could be the most damaging storm to make landfall in the United States in a decade crashed into Texas Friday night, Donald Trump announced a round of hugely consequential decisions that will likely characterize his presidency for months, if not years to come.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders skipped her typical opening remarks at a press briefing Friday, citing an imminent presidential trip to Camp David. Instead, she answered reporters’ questions for about six minutes before leaving the Brady Press Briefing Room at 2:45 p.m. ET. She did not discuss any of the major White House news that was about to unfold.

Trump departed for Camp David a few minutes after three o’clock. At 3:46 p.m., according to a pool report, the White House “announced that Marine One had landed at Camp David,” and, “[i]mmediately after, White House announced a travel and photo lid.”

Over the next few hours, however, and as the nation braced for Hurricane Harvey to make landfall on Texas’ Gulf Coast, the Trump administration announced three major developments, each of which would potentially be overshadowed by the mighty storm.

Indefinitely Banning Transgender Troops From Joining The Military

At 6:25 p.m. ET Friday, Trump delivered his formal order to Defense Secretary James Mattis banning openly transgender individuals from joining the military.

President Obama’s defense secretary had commissioned a review of the military’s policy on transgender individuals’ service in June 2016, the results of which were due in July of this year. At the end of June, Mattis delayed the review’s conclusion until Jan. 1, 2018. Trump’s order delayed it indefinitely.

The order seemingly left Mattis with some room to set his own policy, including possibly determining how to address transgender individuals currently serving in the military, the Associated Press reported.

The AP reported that an unnamed White House official — “who spoke on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House” — said Mattis had been “directed to take a number of factors into consideration” when considering whether to allow transgender troops currently serving openly in the military to continue their service.

“It was not clear whether that means it is possible for Mattis to come to the conclusion that some transgender troops should be allowed to remain,” the AP reported.

The same unnamed source said Trump had given Mattis six months to write a new policy concerning the Department of Defense’s payment for sexual reassignment surgeries and other medical care deemed necessary for the safety of transgender troops midway through a transition, the AP reported.

The formal order came a month after Trump abruptly tweeted a similar order, though military officials said at the time that they would only honor it once it had gone through official channels.

Trump wrote in July, in a series of tweets: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……” “….Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…..” “….victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”

At the time of the tweets, top military brass seemed caught off guard by Trump’s statement.

“Call the White House,” a Pentagon spokesman said, asked about Trump’s tweets.

On Friday, the Pentagon was similarly short. Dana W. White, a spokesman for Mattis, issued a two-sentence statement to the AP acknowledging the order. “More information will be forthcoming,” he said in part.

Pardoning Convicted Sheriff And Longtime Trump Supporter Joe Arpaio In First Act Of Presidential Clemency

Trump’s pardoning of former Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio drew widespread ire and condemnation — not just from Democrats and Latino groups, but also from Republicans outraged at what they asserted was Trump’s blatant disregard for the rule of law. The White House announced the pardon in an email at 8:01 p.m. ET.

Arpaio, who was convicted in July of criminal contempt of court for repeatedly violating a federal judge’s order to cease racially profiling Latinos suspected of being undocumented immigrants, was an early and fervent supporter of Trump’s during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump has said he admired Arpaio’s extremely tough law enforcement practices. In the sheriff’s “Tent City” compound, for example, Arpaio kept hundreds of inmates locked up in the baking sun. And that’s just the start of an extremely long list of abuses spanning Arpaio’s 24-year career as sheriff, which ended when his reelection bid was defeated in November 2016.

The timeline of Arpaio’s pardon is jarring: In early August, days after his conviction, Arpaio began telegraphing to Trump that he would accept a pardon.

“The reason I think a lot of this is being talked about is that many, many people around the country are saying, ‘Trump should pardon,’” he told the Arizona Republic on Aug. 9. “I have not called him on this issue. I’m sure I could. … I’m with him, pardon no pardon, and not asking him. Although, as I said, many other people are asking him.”

For days, Arpaio discussed the issue at length with InfoWars, the popular news and video platform owned by conspiracist Alex Jones. On Aug. 2, InfoWars published a video called “Pres. Trump, Pardon Sheriff Joe: ‘Guilty’ Of Defying Sanctuary Judge.” On Aug. 10, Arpaio asked the network: “Why is Barack Obama is still running the Trump Justice Department?”

On Aug. 14, Trump said he was “seriously considering” pardoning Arpaio.

On Aug. 22, during a rally in Maricopa County, Trump hinted that he would pardon Arpaio, but implied he would wait to formally follow through with the action in order to avoid negative press coverage.

“You know what, I’ll make a prediction: I think he’s going to be just fine, okay?” he said to applause. “But I won’t do it tonight because I don’t want to cause any controversy. But Sheriff Joe should feel good.”

At 10 p.m. ET Friday, just before Hurricane Harvey made landfall northeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, Trump congratulated his old friend and supporter.

I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He kept Arizona safe!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017

Announcing That Sebastian Gorka No Longer Works At The White House, And That He Did Not Resign

Finally, the White House asserted at around 9 p.m. ET that — contrary to his own claims — former deputy assistant to the President and self-proclaimed counterterrorism expert Sebastian Gorka had not left the Trump administration on his own terms earlier in the evening.

Instead, in a statement, an unnamed White House official seemed to imply to a pool reporter that he was fired.

“Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House,” the official said. A note from the pool reporter said it was “attributable to a White House Official.”

Gorka, who had meager counterterrorism expertise but an extensive history of anti-Muslim remarks, was a frequent representative of the Trump administration in television and radio interviews. Civil rights groups celebrated his ouster.

But its timing was curious: Gorka has maintained that he resigned the post, and the first report of the news, in The Federalist, included segments of a resignation letter.

Breaking: @SebGorka Resigns From Trump Administration via @MZHemingway https://t.co/5dyJVPyEPS

— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) August 26, 2017

But Yahoo News later reported that “A source with knowledge of the situation said Gorka did indeed resign—but only after being informed on Friday by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly that his security clearance had been revoked, which would have made it impossible for him to continue in his White House job.”

And the New York Times citied two unnamed administration officials who said Gorka had been “forced out” of his position.

One of the officials said that White House chief of staff John Kelly had “telegraphed” his desire to get rid of Gorka over the past week.

That same source, according to the Times, said Gorka’s ouster came at the end of what had been at least a two-week vacation. Yahoo reported he was due to return from vacation on Monday.

On Saturday, Sanders did not respond to TPM’s requests for comment about any of these events. Indeed, aside from the statements published above, the White House has been largely quiet after the night of seismic news.