Bolton: Trump asked China to help him get re-elected

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump “pleaded” with China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help his re-election prospects, according to a scathing 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 was working furiously to block release of the book, asking a federal court for an emergency temporary restrainer Wednesday to prevent the spread of allegations, like those about China, that carry echoes of Trump’s efforts to solicit political help from Ukraine. Those efforts led to his impeachment.

The 577-page book paints an unvarnished portrait of Trump and his administration, lending the most vivid, first-person account yet of how Trump conducts himself in office. Several other former officials have written books, but most have been flattering about the president. Other former officials have indicated they were saving their accounts of their time working for Trump until after he left office in order to speak more candidly. The Associated Press obtained a copy of

Bolton’s book in advance of its release next week.

Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser for a 17-month period, called Trump’s attempt to shift the June 2019 conversation with Xi to the U.S. election a stunning move, and wrote that it was among innumerable conversations that he found concerning. Bolton wrote that he believes that Congress should have expanded the scope of its impeachment inquiry to these other incidents.

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