US: Trump moves in office guided by reelection concerns claims Bolton

President Donald Trump “pleed” with China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help his reelection prospects, according to a scathing new book by former Trump viser John Bolton that accuses president of being driven by political calculations when making national security decisions.

White House worked furiously to block book, asking a federal court for an emergency temporary restraining order Wednesday against its release.

Bolton's allegations that Trump solicited Chinese help for his reelection effort carried echoes of 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,” Bolton wrote.

577-p book paints an unvarnished portrait of Trump and his ministration, amounting to most vivid, first-person account yet of how Trump conducts himself in office. Several or former officials have written books, but most have been flattering about president. Or former officials have indicated y were saving ir accounts of ir time working for Trump until after he left office in order to speak more candidly. Associated Press obtained a copy of Bolton’s book in vance of its release next week.

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

Deeply critical of president and much of his senior team, Bolton wrote that because staff h served him so poorly, Trump “saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run White House, let alone huge federal government.” He ded that while he was at White House, Trump typically h only two intelligence briefings a week “and in most of those, he spoke at greater length than briefers, often on matters completely unrelated to subjects at hand.”

Trump was asked about book Wednesday on Fox News Channel's “Hannity," and president accused Bolton of violating law by releasing book. “He broke law. Very simple. I mean, as much as it’s going to be broken,” Trump said. “It’s highly classified information, and he did t have approval.”

He tweeted early Thursday that book “is me up of lies & fake stories" by a “disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war.”

book includes embarrassing claims that Trump thought Finland was part of Russia, didn't kw that United Kingdom was a nuclear power and called reporters “scumbags” who should be “executed.”

As for meeting with Chinese president in Osaka, Japan, Bolton wrote that Trump told Xi that Democrats were hostile to China.

“He n, stunningly, turned conversation to coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s ecomic capability to affect ongoing campaigns, pleing with Xi to ensure he’d win,” Bolton said. “He stressed importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in electoral outcome.”

Bolton wrote that he would print Trump’s exact words, “but government’s pre-publication review process has decided orwise."

book, titled “ Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” is set to be released Tuesday by Simon & Schuster. It has been subject of a lengthy battle between Bolton and White House.

Justice Department sued Tuesday in an effort to delay publication of book, claiming that it still contained highly classified information and that a required review by National Security Council h t been concluded. According to filing, a career official determined classified material remained in April, but national security viser Robert O’Brien initiated a secondary review that deemed ditional information to be classified.

Bolton wrote that he was asked to d phrases like, “in my view,” to make it clear he was expressing his opinion inste of relying on sensitive information. In ors, he was asked to describe things more generally. He was asked to remove quotation marks nearly every time he recounts conversation between Trump and foreign leers and himself and foreign leers.

White House’s contention that so much of book was classified appeared to be a tacit mission that many of Bolton’s allegations were accurate — as inaccurate information could t be classified.

U.S. Tre Representative Robert Lighthizer said Wednesday that he attended a meeting between Trump and Xi at Group of 20 nations in Osaka, but he never heard Trump pleing with Xi to buy more agriculture products to ensure he would win reelection.

“Absolutely untrue. Never happened. I was re. I have recollection of that ever happening. I don’t believe it’s true. I don’t believe it ever happened,” Lighthizer said at a Senate hearing on tre issues. “Would I recollect something as crazy as that? Of course I would recollect it.”

Bolton wrote that he raised some of his concerns about Trump’s conversations with foreign leers with Attorney General William Barr and flagged similar worries with White House attorneys and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“ pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept," he wrote.

Trump continually pandered to Xi, Bolton wrote. At a White House Christmas dinner in 2018, Bolton said Trump asked why U.S. was sanctioning China over its treatment of Uighurs. China suspects Uighurs, who are predominantly Muslim and culturally and ethnically distinct from majority Han Chinese population, of harboring separatist tendencies. In recent years, China has dramatically escalated its campaign against m by detaining more than 1 million people in internment camps and prisons.

“At opening dinner of Osaka G-20 meeting, with only interpreters present, Xi explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang,” Bolton wrote. “According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahe with building camps, which he thought was exactly right thing to do. "

In book, Bolton describes every Trump decision as being guided by concerns for his own reelection, a claim that evokes scandal that sparked Trump’s impeachment last year.

book alleges that Trump directly tied providing military aid to Ukraine to country’s willingness to conduct investigations into his Democratic challenger Joe Biden and Biden's son Hunter. In one conversation, Trump said “he wasn’t in favor of sending m anything until all Russia-investigation materials related to Clinton and Biden h been turned over,” Bolton writes.

Trump’s decision to withhold military assistance to Ukraine until it agreed to investigate Biden led House to charge Trump was abusing his power. aid was ultimately released once holdup became public. GOP-controlled Senate ultimately acquitted president on that count and a count of obstructing Congress’ investigation of incident.

Bolton was called to testify before House lawmakers conducting impeachment inquiry, but he declined, suggesting he wanted a federal court to decide wher he should heed a White House directive t to cooperate with inquiry.