Donald Trump had a foul-mouthed meltdown at his staff in 2016 when they refused to release a statement he dictated that defended his birther conspiracy theory about Barack Obama, according to a new book from Daily Beast reporters Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng, Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump’s Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington. An excerpt published by Vanity Fair recounts a fit of anger Trump had when his aides tried to get him to renounce his theory that Obama wasn’t born in the United States. They asked him for a short statement, but, in a conference call, he asked them to take down what is described as a “meandering spat of word vomit during which Trump kept finding new ways to say that his birther crusade was, in fact, necessary, good, and proper.” When he was told it would be damaging to release his words, he is said—based on the memory of people on the call—to have erupted: “I WANT THAT STATEMENT!!!! GET ME THAT FUCKING STATEMENT!!!!!!! ... I WANT THAT GODDAMN FUCKING STATEMENT RIGHT NOW!!!!! WHERE THE FUCK IS IT.”

The new book Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump’s Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington (Viking) will be published Feb. 11. Pre-order your copy here.