Quotes from Bob Woodward

He had expected political protection from his attorney general and was now left unprotected.

Everyone wants your position," Trump continued. "I made a huge mistake giving it to you." The president continued with venom. It was chilling. Cohn had never been talked to or treated like that in his life. "This is treason," Trump said.

One day in the Oval Office, Cohn brought in the latest job numbers to Trump and Pence. "I have the most perfect job numbers you're ever going to see," Cohn said. "It's all because of my tariffs," Trump said. "They're working." Trump had yet to impose any tariffs, but he believed they were a good idea and knew Cohn disagreed with him.

Ryan began, on his own, to research how to deal with someone who is amoral and transactional.

Ryan's main takeaway: Do not humiliate Trump in public. Humiliating a narcissist risked real danger, a frantic lashing out if he felt threatened or criticized. Ryan tested

The tweets were not incidental to his presidency. They were central

The major problem might be allegations of obstructing justice by urging Comey to drop the Flynn investigation, and then firing Comey. But Dowd believed that the president's Article II constitutional authority clearly encompassed firing an FBI director.

the vice president was a counting clerk, period.

Members of his staff had joined to purposefully block some of what they believed were the president's most dangerous impulses. It was a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world.

He acted like doing too much advance preparation would diminish his skills in improvising.

the newspapers he read more thoroughly than the public generally knew.

He doesn't like intellectuals. Trump was a guy who "never went to class. Never got the syllabus. Never took a note. Never went to a lecture. The night before the final, he comes in at midnight from the fraternity house, puts on a pot of coffee, takes your notes, memorizes as much as he can, walks in at 8 in the morning and gets a C.

Trump rejected the better judgment of almost all of his staff. He had done that before. His perverse independence and irrationality ebbed and flowed.

Trump had no understanding of how government functioned. At times he would just start drafting orders himself or dictating

the Trump election had rekindled the divide in the country. There was a more hostile relationship with the media. The culture wars were reinvigorated. There was a racist tinge. Trump accelerated it.

The president has zero psychological ability to recognize empathy or pity in any way.

We need to know if the commander in chief is fully with us or not," Mattis said. "We can't fight a half-assed war anymore." In order for the military to succeed, Mattis needed Trump to be all-in on the strategy. "I'm tired of hearing that we have to do this or that to protect our homeland or to ensure our national security," Trump said.

Real power is—I don't even want to use the word—fear." Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in an interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa on March 31, 2016, at the Old Post Office Pavilion, Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C.

Trump's impact on the country would be lasting. "This degradation of the American experiment is real. This is tangible. Truth is no longer governing the White House statements. Nobody believes—even the people who believe in him somehow believe in him without believing what he says.

You don't understand, Mike. You can do this. I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this.

Porter saw it from up close—perhaps as close as anyone on the staff except Hope Hicks—the Trump election had rekindled the divide in the country. There was a more hostile relationship with the media. The culture wars were reinvigorated. There was a racist tinge. Trump accelerated it.

He's a professional liar.

was Admiral John McCain, the Pacific commander, had been offered and taken early release, leaving other POWs behind. "No, Mr. President," Mattis said quickly, "I think you've got it reversed." McCain had turned down early release and been brutally tortured and held five years in the Hanoi Hilton. "Oh, okay," Trump said.

Pence was staying out of the way. He didn't want to be tweeted about or called an idiot.