"He's not taking me to Washington?"

Trump’s role in the deals remains opaque. Davidson said he dealt only with Cohen, so he does not know what, if anything, Trump knew about the negotiations.

But according to Davidson, it might have been the deal with Daniels, concluded shortly before Trump’s surprise victory over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, that opened some of the first fissures in Trump and Cohen’s relationship.

The man who once famously said he would “take a bullet” for Trump was left embarrassed and embittered, Davidson said, when despite his years of loyalty, he was not tapped for a position, like White House chief of staff or attorney general, in Trump’s administration.

“He confided in me that he was just beside himself, and, in his words, you know, he said, ‘Can you f—ing believe, after everything I’ve done, he’s not taking me to Washington?'” Davidson recalled. “He felt that it was a personal embarrassment for him, that he was rejected.”