Bolton, in book, accuses Trump of 'obstruction of justice as a way of life,' asking China's Xi for 2020 help
Former national security adviser
John Bolton alleges in his upcoming 592-page memoir that
President Trump regularly gives "personal favors to dictators he liked," backed the idea of more concentration camps in China, and asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him in the 2020 election, according to excerpts obtained and published by several media outlets.
Trump also apparently was unaware that Britain is a nuclear power and asked whether Finland is part of Russia, according to Bolton -- who also claimed that during Trump's 2018 visit to North Korea, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo handed Bolton a note saying of Trump, “He is so full of sh--."
The
Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published an excerpt of the book, and
The New York Times and The
Washington Post also published stories based on parts of the manuscript. Fox News has confirmed the quotes in The New York Times' story.
According to these excerpts, Bolton also reserved harsh words for Democrat impeachment managers who demanded he testify as part of their inquiry into Trump's dealings with Ukraine. "Had Democratic impeachment advocates not been so obsessed with their Ukraine blitzkrieg in 2019, had they taken the time to inquire more systematically about Trump’s behavior across his entire foreign policy, the impeachment outcome might well have been different," Bolton wrote.
Trump allies have accused Bolton of trying to sell books with incendiary claims, noting that he was paid $2 million and refused to testify during Trump's impeachment proceedings. Democrats
were upset with Bolton at the time, saying he had declined to produce an affidavit in the Senate trial.
The White House has repeatedly challenged Bolton's credibility. A
string of resurfaced video clips earlier this year led Trump to tweet "GAME OVER!" -- including an interview of Bolton in August 2019 where he appears to have no issues with Trump foreign policy concerning Ukraine or any other nation. The interview seemingly contradicted assertions in Bolton's book that Trump explicitly told him he wanted to tie military aid to Ukraine to an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
has said his communications with Trump involved no pressure for any investigation.)
At one point in his memoir, Bolton makes reference to edits made to his book as a result of the prepublication review process, as he accused the president of soliciting foreign election help during a June 29, 2019 meeting with Xi in Osaka, Japan.
"Xi told Trump that the U.S.-China relationship was the most important in the world. He said that some (unnamed) American political figures were making erroneous judgments by calling for a new Cold War with China," Bolton wrote. "Whether Xi meant to finger the Democrats or some of us sitting on the U.S. side of the table, I don’t know, but Trump immediately assumed that Xi meant the Democrats."
"Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win," Bolton wrote. "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."
The president then urged China to "buy as many American farm products as China could," Bolton wrote, and "Xi agreed that we should restart the trade talks, welcoming Trump’s concession that there would be no new tariffs and agreeing that the two negotiating teams should resume discussions on farm products on a priority basis."
MORE FROM NEO-CON BOLTON:
Bolton, in book, accuses Trump of 'obstruction of justice as a way of life,' asking China's Xi for 2020 help