Trump whined to staff after his West Virginia rally fell flat -- and has been more 'subdued' than usual

President Donald Trump's rally in West Virginia came after a "double guilty" for senior allies of the campaign Tuesday. It's been enough to put the president in a "mood."

According to The New York Times, the general feeling was that things have looked this bad before amid Team Trump. However, there was little consolation from advisors who admitted they had no idea how to counter the news that former "fixer" Michael Cohen fingered Trump in his court plea.

So, Trump did what he tends to do: he blamed the media and repeated key crowd-pleasers to an eager arena of supporters. Still, Trump told a person close to him the rally fell flat and he saw empty chairs. The president typically feeds off of the crowd's energy, but Tuesday, he couldn't quite deliver.

"But this time, advisers noticed that the president, a man who has in the past relished the idea of leading his troops into political battle, seemed subdued," The Times wrote. "He appeared to realize the serious nature of what had just taken place, and yet his relative calm — contrasted with his more typical lashing out when he is anxious — unnerved some of his aides."

On Tuesday evening, en route to Washington from Charleston, Trump tried to minimize the news when speaking to aides. He claimed that neither Cohen nor Manafort had anything to do with him and whined about the way it "looked" while at the rally.

Read the full report from The New York Times.