Even before its release, it is already at the top of sales on Amazon. As the Trump administration urgently tries to block its publication - scheduled for June 23 - by the courts, the good sheets from the book of his ex-National Security Advisor, John Bolton, were published in New York on Wednesday Times , The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal . In The Room Where It Happened, A White House Memoir ( The room where it happened ), the mustachioed hawk paints a devastating portrait of an American president who had coined the US foreign policy to serve its own interests and his re-election.
Bolton believes the Democrats were "obsessed" with the Ukrainian affair. According to him, if they had taken greater account of his foreign policy in the impeachment procedure, the outcome "could have been very different". However, he refused to testify in the House of Representatives, preferring - according to his critics - to protect a multi-million dollar contract for his memoirs. Here are the five most striking passages.
Trump reportedly asked Chinese President for help in re-election
The ex-adviser said that on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Osaka, Donald Trump had "diverted" the conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping "towards the next presidential election" by pleading with Xi "so that he makes sure he wins ”. During this meeting in June 2019, the American president "stressed the importance of farmers and the increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat on the result of the election" in rural American states.
- Donald Tump allegedly offered “favors” to autocrats
John Bolton expressed concern to Minister of Justice Bill Barr "about Trump's willingness to render service to autocrats, including the" Turkish President. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is said to have asked him for help with a business in the crosshairs of the American judicial authorities. Trump allegedly replied that there was nothing he could do immediately because the Manhattan attorney had been appointed by Barack Obama, but that he would fix the problem later. The US president then chose a new prosecutor, Geoffrey Berman, who ultimately charged Turkish bank Halkbank despite pressure from the Justice Department, CNN said. Bolton also accuses the American president of having lifted sanctions against the Chinese telecoms group ZTE as a bargaining chip to negotiate a trade agreement with Beijing.
- Trump reportedly gave blessing to Chinese re-education camps
While influential Republican senators tirelessly denounce China, John Bolton writes that, still in Osaka in 2019: "only in the presence of the interpreters, Xi had explained to Trump why, by and large, he was building concentration camps in Xinjiang . According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should continue to build these camps, which Trump believed was the right thing to do. "
- The American president would be (very) ignorant
The memories of John Bolton sometimes echo the chronicles of Michael Wolfe in Fire and Fury . Bolton describes an American president who notably asked Theresa May if the United Kingdom was a nuclear power, and her chief of staff, John Kelly, if Finland was part of Russia. According to Bolton, briefing the US president on geopolitics is useless because Trump "spends most of his time talking rather than listening."
- His advisers make fun of him behind his back
Trump administration officials were wavering, according to the former adviser, between deep concern and mockery. In a word slipped to John Bolton at the historic summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly wrote: "He only tells bullshit" ( he is so full of shit ”).
Pompeo would have subsequently indicated that Trump's negotiations with Kim Jong-un had "no chance of succeeding". The American president then allegedly asked his secretary of state to give Kim Jong-CD Rocket Man autographed by Elton John as a gift - in reference to the nickname Donald Trump had given to the North Korean leader during the nuclear tensions. But Kim Jong-un had snubbed Pompeo during his trip, preferring to go and inspect a potato field. According to Bolton, "giving this CD to Kim remained a (Trump's) priority for several months."
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Trump administration attempts to block ex-councilor John Bolton's book
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