The American press published, Wednesday, June 17, new passages from John Bolton's forthcoming book, "The Room Where It Happened, A White House Memoir" (literally: "The room where it happened, memories of the House White "). The former national security adviser wants to highlight "a fundamentally unacceptable behavior [of Donald Trump] that erodes the very legitimacy of the presidency". This former close friend of the American president notably accuses him of having asked the Chinese president for help to be re-elected next November.

Will these accusations deliver a final blow to the re-election of Donald Trump? Decryption in three questions with Jean-Éric Branaa, lecturer at the Panthéon-Assas Paris II University and specialist in American politics. 

France 24: What is the scope of these new accusations?

Jean-Éric Branaa:  They come to strike a new blow to the presidency. Already in January 2018, Michael Wolff's book, "Fire and Fury", had made a lot of noise. He supported the thesis that Donald Trump was a free electron in the White House, unable to control the country. A few months later, there was the book by Bob Woodward, the journalist who revealed the Watergate ["Fear: Trump in the White House", who paints a portrait of an angry and paranoid president, editor's note]

John Bolton's reach is stronger because he was very close to the American president and to power. He was one of a handful of men who decided, saw and heard everything. This book has an extraordinary strength of authenticity and proximity, which can be explosive.

Donald Trump objected to the publication of this book early on. The Senate also opposed it. In February, he had the possibility of hearing John Bolton in the context of the dismissal procedure. As a reminder, John Bolton had refused to be heard by the House of Representatives. The Senate could force it, but did not - except for one vote. The revelations could have been charged in the investigation in a dismissal trial. We tell ourselves that by reading the pages, we could potentially read what should have been this deposition in the Senate. 

France 24: John Bolton announced the publication of this book several months ago. The American media had already published some extracts in January. Why are these new revelations coming now?

Jean-Éric Branaa:  The publication of the book was postponed by the dismissal trial [the acquittal of Donald Trump was announced by the Senate on February 5, note] Then there was the health crisis. In addition, White House lawyers have worked hard to prevent the release of the book. 

In this calendar, the revelations of the book are very important, especially with regard to China. Because with the Covid-19, Donald Trump's campaign was redirected against China. His whole speech therefore consisted in accusing this country of all evils and making its Democratic opponent Joe Biden an ally of China. 

However, John Bolton explains precisely in these extracts that the president negotiated with China to be re-elected. In January, we unexpectedly learned that Beijing had agreed to buy tens of billions of dollars of American agricultural products. At the same time, Donald Trump has not stopped praising Chinese President Xi Jinping and his management of the health crisis. Everyone was amazed at this flip-flop and, through John Bolton, we are now making the link. In a few sentences, he ruined Donald Trump's anti-China and anti-Biden campaign.

France 24: Precisely, in light of these new accusations, how does the rest of the re-election campaign for the American president look?

Jean-Éric Branaa:  Donald Trump is in a totally black series. He left with the idea that his re-election was going to be simple but the Covid-19 brought the campaign into chaos. He had organized his world in a binary way, with his friends on one side, his enemies on the other, and the economy to arbitrate all of this. All this is turned upside down by a health crisis which is linked to an economic crisis. We do not see how this could be resolved by November. Let's not forget that Donald Trump is a businessman who based everything on the idea of ​​bringing prosperity back to the United States.

Add to this a social crisis around the Black Lives Matter movement, which the president can not handle either, and the defections of moderate Republicans, who criticize him more and more strongly. The American president is increasingly isolated, unable to campaign. 

First, the Republican Party decided last week to reproduce the 2016 program identically. He had problems in the holding of the convention which must invest Donald Trump. [For reasons of social distancing, the republican convention planned for August had to be reorganized and will be held in Charlotte, in North Carolina, but also in Jacksonville, in Florida, Editor's note].

Then Donald Trump sees that Joe Biden has a boulevard in front of him. He ran an extraordinary primary campaign and is over 2,000 delegates today. He joined the Democratic camp, between the moderates and the progressives, by working with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The Democratic Party is now in close ranks. Despite the charges in the Tara Reade case, no one rose to attack Joe Biden. With the Black Lives Matter movement, his campaign started again. 

Faced with this, Donald Trump finds himself completely trapped because the management of the health crisis never stops. However, he launched giant meetings at a time when the coronavirus was redoubling in the country: he wanted a big meeting of 30,000 people in Tulsa, Oklahoma, next week. It sounds inconsistent and crazy. At the end of the campaign, its detractors will look at the figures for contamination. If the curve goes up, public opinion will say that it is criminal. The political risk is therefore enormous.

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