Bolton's hits keep coming
‘Boot Pence, bash Japan, diss aides’
More excerpts trickled out Thursday from John Bolton’s upcoming memoir of his time in the Trump White House, as the Department of Justice prepared for an emergency court hearing to block its release — and a Trump adviser blasted the book as “revenge porn.”
The nearly 600-page tome by Bolton (right) — who served as Trump’s national security adviser between April 2018 and September 2019 — is set to be released Tuesday, assuming the feds fail in their bid to keep it under wraps.
Despite the efforts to keep a lid on it, several unflattering claims Bolton levels in “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir” have already been published by multiple media outlets with advance copies.
Tales to emerge Thursday include how:
Trump in 2018 floated to Bolton the idea of booting Vice President Mike Pence from the 2020 ticket in favor of former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. Bolton advised against the move.
Trump launched into a rant about the World War II attack on Pearl Harbor when trade advisers brought up America’s alliance with Japan.
He planned to hold a press conference on May 7, 2018, announcing America's withdrawal from an Obama-era nuclear nonproliferation deal with Iran, but postponed it by a day because First Lady Melania Trump already had a briefing scheduled — on her “Be Best” anti-bullying initiative.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House chief of staff John Kelly resented the extent to which Jared Kushner, Trump’s politically inexperienced son-inlaw, was tasked with handling foreign affairs.
“Why is Jared calling [the] Mexicans?” Kelly purportedly fumed to Trump in one blowup, as “caravans” of migrants headed toward the US border. “Because I asked him to,” Trump purportedly responded. “None of you other geniuses have been able to stop the caravans.”
Trump has strongly and repeatedly denied Bolton’s claims, blasting him in a Wednesday interview with The Wall Street Journal as a “liar.”
The DOJ has moved to block the release of the book on the grounds that it contains highly classified information that could jeopardize national security if made public — and leave Bolton legally liable.
A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for 1 p.m. Friday to weigh the merits of the DOJ’s argument.
Meanwhile, Peter Navarro, Trump’s top trade adviser, slammed Bolton during a Thursday appearance on Fox News as a hawkish “warlord” out to make a quick buck off of his White House tenure.
“This is deep swamp revenge porn,” Navarro said of the book.
“He’s basically throwing grenades at this administration to make money with [publisher] Simon & Schuster,” added Navarro, mocking the adviser-turned-author as “Big Lie Bolton” and “Book Deal Bolton.”