Steve Bannon had just finished hosting his daily Breitbart radio show on Wednesday morning when he received an urgent e-mail from an adviser. Donald Trump Jr. had just called; he was furious over quotes attributed to Bannon that appear in Michael Wolff’s bombshell new book about the Trump White House. The Guardian had obtained a copy and was reporting that Bannon called Trump Jr.’s June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.” Bannon’s shocking comments seemed to suggest the Trump campaign colluded with Russia—or at least tried to. The adviser warned that Bannon risked his political future if he didn’t issue a statement walking them back. “This is the president’s family,” one Bannon ally told me.

While Bannon had granted Wolff extensive access, he was caught off guard by the book’s rollout and hadn’t read the Guardian piece. Working from the Breitbart Embassy, steps from Capitol Hill, Bannon quickly organized a series of conference calls with his kitchen Cabinet that included, among others, political adviser Andy Surabian; Breitbart Washington editor Matt Boyle; communications strategist Arthur Schwartz; and Breitbart London editor Raheem Kassam. According to sources briefed on the conversations, Bannon denied making the comments about Trump Jr. to Wolff, but was resistant to the idea of issuing a statement disputing them. He explained to his advisers that Trump Jr. “surely knew” he would never say those things to a journalist. “Steve was like, ‘I don’t respond to bullshit attacks,’” a source briefed on the conversation said. (Bannon declined to comment).

The other people on the line told Bannon he was badly misjudging the situation. “Steve can be kind of delusional,” a Bannon ally told me. Bannon’s camp had been in touch with Trump Jr. and White House official Ira Greenstein throughout the morning, and they were told the president was preparing for war if Bannon didn’t recant. Another concern: Bannonworld worried that while Trump Jr. was a media punch line, he remained highly popular with the deplorables from his many appearances on the campaign trail. In a blood feud with Trump’s son, Bannon might actually lose. “The base loves Don Jr.,” an adviser said. And, in the early stages of the crisis, the Breitbart audience, Bannon’s own constituency since before the president began his campaign, appeared to be siding with Trump.

Reluctantly, after much lobbying, Bannon agreed to draft a statement. According to a person who viewed the draft, it read Trump Jr. was a “patriot” who “loves his country,” and went on to trash Wolff. A copy was sent to both the White House and Don Jr., and was approved. The plan was to release it to Axios’s Jonathan Swan.

But Bannon had waited too long. Around 2 P.M., Trump released a blistering four-paragraph statement ripping Bannon and questioning his mental health. “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Trump said. “Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look.” The level of vitriol in the press release reflected the contempt Trump had built up for Bannon. On his way to Mar-a-Lago for Christmas, Trump had reportedly wanted to flame Bannon for comments Bannon had made to me about his disdain for Ivanka and Jared Kushner, not to mention his frustration with Trump; but at the time, White House aides successfully persuaded Trump not to speak out.

Bannon, predictably, reacted to Trump’s statement by digging in. He refused to issue his own statement and told advisers the controversy would blow over. But as some advisers had warned, Bannon’s situation deteriorated rapidly over the next 24 hours. On Thursday, at the urging of White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, said a source, Trump advisers fanned out in the media to attack Bannon. Some of the candidates Bannon has pledged to support in 2018 distanced from him. The campaign of Arizona Senate candidate Kelli Ward, a charter member of Bannon’s insurgent slate, quickly issued a statement: “Steve Bannon is only one of many high-profile endorsements Dr. Ward has received.”