John Bolton’s bombshell Trump book: eight of its
most stunning claims
White House tried to block publication of The Room Where
It Happened, but the book has been leaked to media outlets
Max Benwell
and Guardian staff
@max_benwell
Published
onWed 17 Jun 2020 23.06 BST
Donald
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton has made a series of
explosive claims about the US president in his new book The Room Where It
Happened, according to numerous news reports and an excerpt.
Most
notably, Bolton claims Trump asked China to use its economic power to help him
in the 2020 election, and tried to kill criminal investigations as “favors” for
dictators he liked.
The explosive
allegations came after a White House lawsuit sought to block the publication of
Bolton’s book. But ahead of its scheduled release next week it has now been
leaked to the New York Times and Washington Post, which reported on some of the
stunning claims. An excerpt also appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
Here are eight of the most shocking revelations:
1. Trump
pleaded with China to help win the 2020 election
According
to the excerpt of Bolton’s book published by the Wall Street Journal, Trump
asked China to use its economic power to help him win a second election.
In one
instance, Trump and President Xi Jinping were discussing hostility to China in
the US. “Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US
presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading
with Xi to ensure he’d win,” Bolton writes.
“He
stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans
and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump’s exact words, but the
government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.”
2. Trump
suggested he was open to serving more than two terms
In another
eye-opening exchange published in the Wall Street Journal, Trump also seems to
support Xi’s idea of eliminating presidential term limits. “Xi said he wanted
to work with Trump for six more years, and Trump replied that people were
saying that the two-term constitutional limit on presidents should be repealed
for him,” Bolton writes. “Xi said the US had too many elections, because he
didn’t want to switch away from Trump, who nodded approvingly.”
3. Trump
offered favors to dictators
Bolton’s
book reportedly details cases where Trump tried to kill criminal investigations
as favors to dictators. One incident published in the Washington Post includes
a 2018 discussion with the Turkish president, Recep Erdoğan. Bolton says
Erdoğan gave Trump a memo claiming that a Turkish firm under investigation in
the US was innocent. “Trump then told Erdoğan he would take care of things,
explaining that the southern district prosecutors were not his people, but were
Obama people, a problem that would be fixed when they were replaced by his
people.”
4. Trump
praised Xi for China’s internment camps
According
to Bolton, Trump was also approving when Xi defended China’s internment of
Uighur Muslims in detention camps. “According to our interpreter,” Bolton
writes, “Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which
Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do.”
According
to leaked Communist party documents published in November, at least 1 million
Uighur Muslims are detained in the camps.
5. Trump
defended Saudi Arabia to distract from a story about Ivanka
Trump made
headlines in November 2018 when he released a bizarre statement defending the
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. It
included lines such as “The world is a very dangerous place!” and “maybe he did
and maybe he didn’t!”
According
to Bolton’s book, making headlines was the point. A story about his daughter
Ivanka using her personal email for government business was also in the news at
the time. After waging war on Hilary Clinton during the 2016 campaign for doing
the same thing, Trump need a distraction.
“This will
divert from Ivanka,” Trump reportedly said. “If I read the statement in person,
that will take over the Ivanka thing.”
6. Trump’s
top staff mocked him behind his back
From what
has been reported, it sounds like Bolton’s book provides one of the clearest
insights into the despair of Trump’s top officials behind the scenes.
In one
example given by the New York Times, Bolton claims he received a note from the
secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, after Trump’s 2018 meeting with North Korea’s
Kim Jong-un, simply saying, “He is so full of shit.” On top of this, Pompeo
also allegedly said a month later that Trump’s diplomatic efforts with North
Korea had “zero probability of success”.
7. Trump
thought Finland was part of Russia
Bolton’s
book reportedly details some giant holes in Trump’s knowledge. In one instance,
Bolton says Trump didn’t seem to know basic knowledge about the UK, asking its
former prime minister Theresa May: “Oh, are you a nuclear power?”. On top of
this, he also alleges that Trump once asked if Finland was part of Russia, and
repeatedly mixed up the current and former presidents of Afghanistan.
8. Trump
thought it would be ‘cool’ to invade Venezuela
According
to the Washington Post, Bolton claims Trump said invading Venezuela would be
“cool”, and that the country was “really part of the United States”.
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