President Trump angry at being betrayed by former aides

"The things that were said about me in the insane Mueller report, which was written by 18 angry, Trump-hating Democrats, were made up and totally false," Trump wrote on Twitter on April 19. He added that some of the information was "complete nonsense" and was only intended to make him look bad.

The Justice Department this week released special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. Mueller did not conclude that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, but he found "multiple actions by the President that were likely to exert undue influence over law enforcement investigations," such as asking witnesses not to cooperate with prosecutors or asking aides to "mislead" the public.

While Mueller ultimately did not charge Trump with obstruction of justice, he said the investigation did not prove that the president had not engaged in such conduct. The report concluded that the reason Trump did not get into deeper trouble was that his efforts to influence the investigation were largely unsuccessful, as the president’s aides refused to carry out his orders.

Sources close to Trump said that while he felt vindicated by the report on his campaign's alleged collusion with Russia, the president also felt betrayed by former aides who provided damaging information about him.

Trump seemed particularly angry about former White House counsel Don McGahn, who spoke with Mueller for about 30 hours. McGahn said Trump twice asked him to fire Mueller, but McGahn refused. Trump also expressed suspicion that McGahn took notes during meetings with him. The president said that “lawyers don’t take notes” and that he had never had a lawyer take notes.