Trump ‘sought Xi’s help on vote’

PRESIDENT Donald Trump “pleaded” with China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help his re-election prospects, according to a new book by former Trump adviser John Bolton that accuses the President of being driven by political calculations when making national security decisions.

The White House worked furiously to block release of the book, asking a federal court for an emergency temporary restraining order on Wednesday to prevent its release.

Mr Bolton’s allegations that Mr Trump solicited Chinese help for his re-election effort carried echoes of Mr Trump’s attempt to get political help from Ukraine, which led to his impeachment.

“I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by re-election calculations,” Mr Bolton wrote.

The 577-page book paints an unvarnished portrait of Mr Trump and his administration, amounting to the most vivid, first-person account yet of how Mr Trump conducts himself in office. Several other former officials have written books, but most have been flattering about the President.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of Mr Bolton’s book, titled The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, in advance of its release next week.

Mr Bolton, Mr Trump’s national security adviser for a 17month period, called Mr Trump’s attempt to shift the June 2019 conversation with Mr Xi to the US election a stunning move, and wrote it was among many conversations he found concerning.

He added Congress should have expanded the scope of its impeachment inquiry to these other incidents.

Critical of the President and much of his senior team, Mr Bolton wrote that because staff had served him so poorly, Mr Trump “saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government”.

The book also includes embarrassing claims that Mr Trump thought Finland was part of Russia, didn’t know the UK was a nuclear power and called reporters “scumbags” who should be “executed”.

Pictures: GETTY/AFP John Bolton, seen with Donald Trump during his time as national security adviser, claims the President sought help from China’s Xi Jinping (inset) over his re-election bid.