diff --git a/t/unit-tests/t-trailer.c b/t/unit-tests/t-trailer.c
index c1f897235c..262e283827 100644
--- a/t/unit-tests/t-trailer.c
+++ b/t/unit-tests/t-trailer.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #include "test-lib.h"
 #include "trailer.h"
 
-static void t_trailer_iterator(const char *msg, size_t num_expected_trailers)
+static void t_trailer_iterator(const char *msg, size_t num_expected_objects)
 {
 	struct trailer_iterator iter;
 	size_t i = 0;
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ static void t_trailer_iterator(const char *msg, size_t num_expected_trailers)
 		i++;
 	trailer_iterator_release(&iter);
 
-	check_uint(i, ==, num_expected_trailers);
+	check_uint(i, ==, num_expected_objects);
 }
 
 static void run_t_trailer_iterator(void)
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ static void run_t_trailer_iterator(void)
 	static struct test_cases {
 		const char *name;
 		const char *msg;
-		size_t num_expected_trailers;
+		size_t num_expected_objects;
 	} tc[] = {
 		{
 			"empty input",
@@ -119,7 +119,13 @@ static void run_t_trailer_iterator(void)
 			"not a trailer line\n"
 			"not a trailer line\n"
 			"Signed-off-by: x\n",
-			1
+			/*
+			 * Even though there is only really 1 real "trailer"
+			 * (Signed-off-by), we still have 4 trailer objects
+			 * because we still want to iterate through the entire
+			 * block.
+			 */
+			4
 		},
 		{
 			"with non-trailer lines (one too many) in trailer block",
@@ -162,7 +168,7 @@ static void run_t_trailer_iterator(void)
 
 	for (int i = 0; i < sizeof(tc) / sizeof(tc[0]); i++) {
 		TEST(t_trailer_iterator(tc[i].msg,
-					tc[i].num_expected_trailers),
+					tc[i].num_expected_objects),
 		     "%s", tc[i].name);
 	}
 }
diff --git a/trailer.c b/trailer.c
index 3e4dab9c06..4700c44144 100644
--- a/trailer.c
+++ b/trailer.c
@@ -1146,17 +1146,15 @@ void trailer_iterator_init(struct trailer_iterator *iter, const char *msg)
 
 int trailer_iterator_advance(struct trailer_iterator *iter)
 {
-	while (iter->internal.cur < iter->internal.info.trailer_nr) {
-		char *trailer = iter->internal.info.trailers[iter->internal.cur++];
-		int separator_pos = find_separator(trailer, separators);
-
-		if (separator_pos < 1)
-			continue; /* not a real trailer */
+	if (iter->internal.cur < iter->internal.info.trailer_nr) {
+		char *line = iter->internal.info.trailers[iter->internal.cur++];
+		int separator_pos = find_separator(line, separators);
 
+		iter->raw = line;
 		strbuf_reset(&iter->key);
 		strbuf_reset(&iter->val);
 		parse_trailer(&iter->key, &iter->val, NULL,
-			      trailer, separator_pos);
+			      line, separator_pos);
 		/* Always unfold values during iteration. */
 		unfold_value(&iter->val);
 		return 1;
diff --git a/trailer.h b/trailer.h
index 9f42aa7599..ebafa3657e 100644
--- a/trailer.h
+++ b/trailer.h
@@ -125,6 +125,14 @@ void format_trailers_from_commit(const struct process_trailer_options *,
  *   trailer_iterator_release(&iter);
  */
 struct trailer_iterator {
+	/*
+	 * Raw line (e.g., "foo: bar baz") before being parsed as a trailer
+	 * key/val pair as part of a trailer block. A trailer block can be
+	 * either 100% trailer lines, or mixed in with non-trailer lines (in
+	 * which case at least 25% must be trailer lines).
+	 */
+	const char *raw;
+
 	struct strbuf key;
 	struct strbuf val;