As recounted in Sims' memoir — "Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House," out Jan. 29 from Thomas Dunne Books — the minister's son from Alabama was soon sitting face-to-face with the man he still referred to as "DJT," in leftover campaign lingo.

• This was in 2017, when West Wing chaos was a constant storyline in the media.
• Trump and Sims, then 33, had talked on the phone the night before.
• Trump wanted to know who Sims thought was leaking, and said to come see him — but to come through the back, so the senior staff wouldn't know.

As recounted in a passage from "Team of Vipers" that you're seeing first on Axios:

Trump took out one of the black Sharpies that he usually carries in his coat pocket.

• As Sims dished, Trump scrawled two lists on a stiff card with the White House seal at the top.
• One list was people he could trust. The other was people he couldn’t, and wanted to let go.
• The combined lists included about 15 people — 10 of them naughty, and five of them (all campaign alumni) nice.

The leakers formed Trump's unofficial Enemies List — all on his own staff. Most of the targets survived, at least for a while. But Trump seemed to revel in his new inside knowledge:

• The card was later spotted in the president's breast pocket — a reminder of what he perceived as the enemies within.

Sims portrays what he describes in his author's note as "the unvarnished Donald Trump, a man whose gifts and flaws are both larger than life, written by someone with an appreciation of both."

• "Lincoln famously had his Team of Rivals. Trump had his Team of Vipers."
• "We served. We fought. We brought our egos. We brought our personal agendas and vendettas. We were ruthless. And some of us, I assume, were good people."
• "This is what I saw. And, unlike the many leakers in the White House, I have put my name on it."

Go deeper:

• Trump's virtual reality presidency
• Trump's strategic planning inspiration: Mike Tyson
• Inside the Oval: How Trump tormented Mattis

An off-the-top-of-our-head list:

• Leaving NATO
• Bombing Iran
• Death penalty for drug dealers
• Birthright citizenship
• Firing staff
• Firing Mueller
• Leaving the World Trade Organization
• Blowing up Iranian fast boats in the Persian Gulf
• Withdrawing troops and family dependents from South Korea
• Nationalizing 5G

In some cases, Trump follows through, or at least comes very close:

• Trump signed off on an order to evacuate families of service members from South Korea. Allies would have viewed that as a prelude to war, and former White House chief of staff John Kelly and former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis managed to stop it. But the order was drafted, per sources who were there at the time.
• The U.S. won't leave the WTO, in all likelihood. But the administration drafted legislation, as scooped by Swan, that would effectively blow up the nation's WTO commitments.

Remember: Trump has already withdrawn the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris climate agreement, and he's done what no president dared: move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

• The president has been so globally disruptive that you can’t ignore his private venting — even stuff that sounds unlikely.
• He has begun withdrawing from Syria. Is anyone willing to bet against him doing the same in Afghanistan?
• And even though he never withdrew from KORUS (the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement) — which aides viewed as potentially calamitous — an order was drafted, as Bob Woodward recounts in "Fear."

Be smart: Trump blurts out most ideas that roll through his mind. The most frustrating part for top officials is they must quickly move the machinery of government to conform to — or more often to terminate — the suggestions. 

• P.S. Trump has suggested the shutdown could drag on as long as a year. It sounds unthinkable and absurd. But so did the travel ban. 

Go deeper:

• Trump, without evidence, accuses Florida Democrats of rigging elections
• Trump suggests "rogue killers" could be behind Khashoggi disappearance
• Trump's secret, shrinking schedule

• Paul, who wants America to withdraw quickly from foreign wars, told reporters on an evening call that he was "really proud of the president" for arguments he made in the meeting with a small group of senators.
• Paul said Trump mentioned in the meeting how much money the U.S. had been wasting in these foreign wars, especially in Afghanistan.
• He said Trump mentioned "luxury hotels" there — possibly a reference to plans for a swanky hotel reported by NPR in 2016.

A senior administration official told me that when bad news broke about Afghanistan in the wake of that decision, Trump would vent to his generals that it was "your" plan.

What's next? Paul said he didn't want to talk about timelines for withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan — he would leave that to the president.

• But he conceded that it sounded like Trump "probably will still be there [Afghanistan] longer than I would like to."
• Paul was encouraged that Trump seemed to be preparing "to acknowledge success and victory," and not stick to an open-ended commitment.
• Paul said the deaths of service members affect Trump: "He's not willing to endlessly go on and on and on ... He wants a different future for our country."

According to a source familiar with the meeting, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) argued against Paul’s position and told Trump that "the U.S. made big progress, but pulling out too soon" from Syria "will undermine that progress."

• Rubio has been making the argument that ISIS "is morphing because of U.S. action from a caliphate to an insurgency," the source added.
• "Insurgencies are blending into populations. They are tough to beat, especially by air power alone."

Go deeper:

• White House: Trump has not ordered military to withdraw from Afghanistan
• Trump's hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan could imperil peace process