The White House will not be pleased — expect a tweet from President Donald Trump at any moment — with the opening statement of European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland in front of the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry hearings on Wednesday morning.

Related: Score Two Days for the GOP in the House Impeachment Hearings 

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Sondland, as opposed to previous witnesses, stated that “there was a quid pro quo” in regard to a meeting between the American and Ukrainian presidents and a Volodymr Zelensky promise to investigate corrupt Ukrainian firm Burisma.

The quid pro quo, according to Sondland, was transmitted by presidential personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

But Sondland also made clear that Trump himself never spoke to him — Sondland — about any military aid.

After Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) opened Wednesday’s hearing by whining over White House legal defense strategies, Ranking GOP Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) then told Sondland, “You are here to be smeared.”

Sondland’s opening statement recounted his view that the entire inquiry process was “less than fair.”

But the unfairness, he explained, had to do with White House and State Department intransigence on documents.

That was the first hint Sondland was going south on the GOP.

The ambassador was adamant that he, Ambassador Kurt Volker, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry — the so-called ‘Three Amigos” — “did not want to work with Rudy Giuliani.”

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But, said Sondland, the president insisted.

The E.U. envoy then lobbed a verbal grenade straight into the Republican seats.

Sondland said without qualification that the White House demanded, as communicated by Giuliani, “a quid pro quo” in regard to a meeting of the presidents and a Zelensky public pronouncement that he would investigate Burisma.

Sondland admitted he later came to realize that that request involved the Bidens.

His testimony contradicts the GOP message and the words of previous witnesses.

He did admit the president said repeatedly that he wanted “no quid pro quo.”

But Sondland now apparently thinks otherwise.

Watch for the tables to turn now as the Dems go on offense and the GOP goes on defense.

GOP members will try to trip up Sondland and will likely go after Sondland’s reputation for exaggerating his own place in the scheme of things.

The president will react to Sondland’s currying favor with the Democrats — and it won’t be pretty.

Stay tuned.

This article has been updated to include additional tweets.

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