John Bolton is revealing more information about his upcoming book and sharing insight into his former boss, Donald Trump. As the Justice Department tries to block the release of “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” ABC News is promoting Martha Raddatz’s interview with the former National Security Advisor. It’s part of an hour-long special airing Sunday night. During the interview, one of the things Bolton touches on is Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I think Putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle. I think Putin is– smart, tough. He plays a bad hand extremely well. And… I think he sees that he’s not faced with a serious adversary here. I don’t think he’s worried about Donald Trump.”
Bolton also expanded an excerpt from the book where he writes, “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations.” He reiterated to Raddatz, “There really isn’t any guiding principle that I was able to discern other than what’s good for Donald Trump’s reelection.”
Predictably Trump is attacking Bolton today, tweeting:
Wacko John Bolton’s “exceedingly tedious”(New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories. Said all good about me, in print, until the day I fired him. A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!
Late Wednesday, the Department of Justice filed for an emergency restraining order to stop the publication of Bolton’s book, but thousands of copies have already been mailed to distributors and multiple reporters have read the book. Some released excerpts yesterday as well.
The book is scheduled to be released on Tuesday.