A famed British photographer — whose subjects include Russian president Vladimir Putin and American presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump — shared this weekend disturbing words uttered by the latter, according to a new report.
Speaking with CNN's Christiane Amanpour this weekend, Platon described an exchange he had with Trump before he took the White House.
The lead-up to the famed photographer's session with Putin was "a whole process of intimidation when you come into contact with power," Platon said.
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"I was told that [the photoshoot] would be in the halls of the Kremlin,” Platon said, adding that he was instead "led into a forest outside Moscow at gunpoint by a former KGB operative."
Platon described the encounter as intimidating.
“You have no idea what’s going on, and I got to the most scary building I’ve ever seen; it was his private residence, his dacha, in the middle of the forest," Platon said. "Snipers everywhere. I’m led into the building at gunpoint."
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But out of all the word leaders he's photographed, it was Trump who surprised him the most.
“I remember saying to him, ‘Donny, let’s just be human,'” Platon recalls of a portrait session with Trump.
"We’ve all followed your career, no one can doubt it’s an extraordinary career path you’ve had," Platon said he told Trump. "But there’s always something about you, there’s always an air of tension and controversy about things you say and do in public, and I’m sure it’s intentional on your part. But it feels to me as if you’re in the middle of an emotional storm. I can’t live with that anxiety all the time. As a fellow human being, I’d like to know how you weather the storm.”
It was at that point that Trump looked at Platon and said, "I am the storm."
“I had those words ringing out in my brain,” Platon told Amanpour. “Through the election campaign, through his presidency, through his post-presidency, and now we’re in another cycle again. I keep thinking to myself, ‘There’s only one person who can navigate perfectly through the storm,’ and that’s the creator of the storm.”
