Trump reportedly rejected advice to admit to extramarital affairs, still wants to pardon Manafort

The amount of drama that happened in the White House last week was the equivalent of the last three years of Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful, combined.

It started with President Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleading guilty to eight charges of bank and tax fraud and campaign finance law violations on Tuesday, the same day Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of eight counts of financial crimes. Trump was mad and vented on Twitter, and people with knowledge of the matter told Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman that White House advisers came up with a plan to bring some of Trump's real estate friends from New York City to D.C. to calm him down. "It was supposed to be a war council," one said, but Trump "hates being lectured to," and said no to the meeting.

Already feeling "cornered," he was reportedly further unnerved by reports later in the week that Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker have received immunity and are speaking with federal prosecutors. One person told Sherman that Trump seemed "bummed" and "down and out," but by the weekend he was angry and spent much of his time "calling people and screaming." Sherman was told that Trump's lawyers have recommended he admit to having extramarital affairs and paying the women hush money so people know this was just something he did on Tuesdays rather than a campaign finance violation, but the president rejected this plan because of first lady Melania Trump.

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Trump is also having problems with White House Counsel Don McGahn, who has advised Trump against pardoning Manafort. If McGahn won't draft a pardon, a former official told Sherman, Trump is prepared to bring in someone who will. "He really at this point does not care," the person said. Read more about this spectacle at Vanity Fair.