(MSNBC) — White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says President Barack Obama’s delivered a “frank” directive to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday that he must begin the transition to a new government now.

“The message that the president delivered clearly to President Mubarak was that the time for change had come,” Gibbs said in the daily White House briefing.

NBC News’ diplomatic correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, says that’s diplo-speak for “blunt and unmistakable” and means the United States is telling Mubarak he has to go, no questions asked.