The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

by John Bolton

“axis of adults,”

What alliteration is he proposing other than axis v. allies connotation? Ready to explore this..

As time passed, however, Trump became more certain of himself, the axis of adults departed, things fell apart, and Trump was surrounded only by “yes men.”

Trump is Trump.

I'm not engaged in this thought.

Trump and most of his team never read the government’s “operators’ manual,”

White House’s Hobbesian bellum omnium contra omnes (“war of all against all”).

I trust this concept will be adequately elaborated and not left as a thought bomb and tease.

I followed Adam Smith on economics, Edmund Burke on society, The Federalist Papers on government, and a merger of Dean Acheson and John Foster Dulles on national security.

Explore these references.

Moreover, I was uneasy about working for someone who knew I had competed for his job and who might wonder constantly if he needed a food taster.