
Reporters and columnists around the world are falling all over themselves to scour former national security adviser John Bolton’s White House memoir, The Room Where It Happened, for tidbits of criticism of President Trump. They don’t have to look hard to find them.
Bolton’s memoir is not the usual “tell all” book by a former White House staffer. It’s a “get even” book that White House trade adviser Peter Navarro called “revenge porn,” which is not far off the mark.
I have a slight advantage over most of the people commenting on Bolton’s book because I read it before writing about it.
The book is a litany of complaints seeking to convince us that the president is erratic, incompetent, and incapable of running our government. That Trump knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing. After all the media hype, I read carefully to find the ultimate damnations from which Trump can’t recover. They just aren’t there.
While reading, I heard an echo from my youth of Peggy Lee singing, “Is That All There Is?”
As we know from real life, the accounts of direct witnesses to events can vary greatly. That brings us to the first problem with Bolton’s book.
Robert Lighthizer, the president’s Special Trade Representative, says he was present for the conversation in which Trump, according to Bolton, “pleaded” with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 election by buying more U.S. farm products. Lighthizer said Bolton’s claim is “totally false.”
Lighthizer’s statement means that we can’t accept either his or Bolton’s version of that event. It also brings into question Bolton’s other claims.
[Interesting Read]
See Also:
(1) Sarah Huckabee Sanders Shares Anecdote About Bolton in Her New Book. It Ain’t Pretty.
(2) Adam Schiff eyes calling John Bolton to testify: ‘I don’t think we should wait’
(3) John Bolton says he hopes history remembers Trump as a ‘one-term president’