In a new book, “The Luckiest Man: Life with John McCain,” longtime Senate aide Mark Salter alleged that soon after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the president called the Arizona senator and demanded he apologize for taking back his endorsement during the 2016 election campaign.

McCain initially backed the Trump for the sake of holding the party together, but withdrew the endorsement after Trump attacked a Gold Star family and the “Access Hollywood” tape was released. From that point on, the two had an openly rocky relationship until the senator’s death in 2018, and to this day Trump frequently attacks McCain and his family.

“McCain’s decision appeared to have stuck with Trump’s mind. According to McCain’s recollection of the post-inauguration call, Trump ‘kept repeating it — three, maybe four times, like he wanted me to apologize before we talked about something else,'” said the report. “McCain didn’t respond to Trump’s complaint at first, replying that he was offended by the president’s attack on the Khans. ‘No,’ Trump said, according to McCain. ‘You unendorsed me over the Access Hollywood thing.'”

Ultimately, that conversation calmed down and ended with Trump giving McCain his number. However Salter later asked McCain for the number, and McCain replied, “I don’t know what I did with it.”

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