Why Bolton's charge that Trump begged for Xi's help can be presumed true
President Donald Trump with then-national security adviser John Bolton in 2018. Credit: AFP via Getty Images / Nicholas Kamm
Decades of hostility between Democrats and John Bolton may make the former national security adviser all the more credible an eyewitness to the politically self-serving stunts of GOP President Donald Trump.
As a veteran of the George W. Bush administration, Republican Bolton even sidestepped testimony months ago that could have helped the impeachment case against the current incumbent.
That is, even after he left the administration in September, Bolton showed no tilt toward Democrats.
Rather, Bolton makes Trump sound disloyal to Republican policy platforms,
Bolton once helped promote the disastrous Iraq War from within a White House GOP power circle now submerged by Trump's takeover of the party. Trump derided him for this but never coherently explained why he hired him.
Now Bolton tears the mask off the president's "tough on China" pose and says Trump blatantly asked Xi Jinping for election support. In a meeting, Trump “turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win," Bolton writes.
That isn't partisan static. Bolton is alleging a corrupt betrayal of U.S. goals along the lines of the Ukraine episode that led to impeachment.
Bolton's tell-all "The Room Where It Happened" will sound plausible especially because its top allegations mesh with other fact patterns of the Trump term.
Trump remained passive toward Xi as the coronavirus spread out of Wuhan, China. Only after the pandemic spread across the U.S. did the White House start to blame China.
Also fittingly, Trump publicly said he'd accept foreign help for reelection. In 2016 he openly invited hacking by Russia. Once in office, he asked Ukraine officials for the "favor" of an anti-Democratic investigation.
Now Trump is calling Bolton a liar. But the president has no benefit of the doubt left. Trump always attacks spitefully, usually without evidence, when someone crosses him. He tried that tactic with ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, his ex-FBI Director James Comey, his ex-adviser Steve Bannon and his former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, to name a few. Only devoted followers chose to believe the president.
For three-plus years, there have been disconnects between Trump's personal remarks to and about foreign leaders and actual government policy.
This week, Trump authorized sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the mass incarceration of Uighurs and other largely Muslim minorities. But last year, according to Bolton, Trump seemed to accept Xi's rationale for the concentration camps in western China.
“According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the [concentration] camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do,” Bolton writes.
It is easy to believe the president suggested that.
Consider Trump's minimalist reaction to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi or his campaign assertion that "Islam hates us." Besides, his administration has never much tried to push universal human rights.
Bolton says that in a 2018 phone call, Trump discussed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan his contention that the scandal-hit Halkbank shouldn't be prosecuted.
“Trump then told Erdogan he would take care of things, explaining that the [New York] southern district prosecutors were not his people but were Obama people, a problem that would be fixed when they were replaced by his people,” Bolton wrote.
That fits on two counts. For one, Erdogan influenced Trump on the matter of withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria. As for fixing things, Trump has had his Justice Department intervene in favor of other political allies, for example, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone.
According to Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expresses frustration with Trump behind his back. Former White House chief of staff John Kelly, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and others once fit that category, as did dozens of others.
The descriptions in Bolton's book jibe with Trumps modus operandi, which doesn't change.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
