US President Trump: A Bolton book is 'totally inappropriate'

President Donald Trump says if former national security adviser John Bolton is going ahead with a book it is "totally inappropriate."

"I said to the attorney general before I will consider every conversation with me as president, highly classified," said Trump.

"So that would mean that if he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he's broken the law. And I would think that he would have criminal problems. I hope so."

Trump's comments came Monday at the White House during a roundtable meeting.

The White Houses has told Bolton that the manuscirpt of this forthcoming memoir still contains classified material and could present a national security threat.

Leaked passages from the manuscript roiled Washington in the midst of Trump’s impeachment trial. Included was the revelation that Bolton said Trump told him he was conditioning the release of military aid to Ukraine on whether Ukraine's government would help investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

The younger Biden was paid by a gas company in Ukraine to serve as a board member.

Attorney General Bill Barr added that people who come to work in the government has to sign a document regarding any writings they do post employment.

"If they write something that as that draws on or or might reflect some of the information they've had access to, they have to go through a clearance process before they can publish the book," said Barr.

"And we don't believe that Bolton went through that process, hasn't completed the process, and therefore is in violation of that agreement."

Trump also doubled down on his threat to pull troops from Germany unless Berlin increases its defense spending.

"Germany takes and then on top of it, they treat us very badly on trade. We have trade with the EU and Germany being the biggest member. Very, very badly on trade. And we're negotiating with them on that," said Trump.

"But right now, I'm not satisfied with the deal they want to make. They've cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars over the years on trade. So we we get hurt on trade and we get hurt on NATO."

And the president reiterated his threat to step in to handle the ongoing protest in Seattle.

Demonstrators this week staked out several blocks near downtown Seattle after officers withdrew from a police station following violent confrontations.

They named it the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” demanded broad reforms and have faced blowback from President Donald Trump, who called them anarchist occupiers.

"If they don't do the job, I'll do the job," said Trump.

"I've already spoken to the attorney general about it, but if they don't do the job, we will do the job. (reporter: What can you do?) About 10 different things either, any one of which will solve the problem quickly."