President Trump was on the roof. As a confused group of reporters assembled below him on Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump strolled around on top of the White House, stopping somewhere above the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room — now only occasionally a venue for taking questions — to tell his audience that he was “taking a little walk” in service of his latest home improvement project: a large ballroom.

Then it took an unexpected and unusual turn when he appeared on the roof of the White House's West Wing. Late Tuesday morning, Trump emerged from a door connected to the State Dining Room and stepped onto the roof above the press briefing room and west colonnade that walls the Rose Garden.

President Donald Trump took a surprise trip to a place that might be a first for a president: the roof of the White House.