President Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to “make sure” he won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, according to a new report.
Quotes from a conversation Trump allegedly had with Xi were removed from former national security adviser John Bolton’s forthcoming book during the government’s prepublication review.
An excerpt published Wednesday of Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, claims Trump pleaded with Xi to assist in his reelection efforts by buying soybeans and wheat, which would help him curry favor with farmers, but did not give specific quotes.
“I would print Trump’s exact words but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise,” Bolton wrote.
Vanity Fair, which saw an unredacted version of Bolton’s book, reported that Trump allegedly told his Chinese counterpart “make sure I win” during their June 2019 meeting.
“I will probably win anyway, so don’t hurt my farms. … Buy a lot of soybeans and wheat and make sure we win,” Trump said, according to Bolton.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who claims to have been present at the meeting, said Bolton’s recollection was “absolutely untrue.”
The Trump administration is seeking to block the publication of Bolton’s book, which is set to be released Tuesday, claiming it contains classified information. Advance copies have already been sent out, and Bolton’s lawyer argued it went through a rigorous vetting by the White House, which pushed back the book’s publication twice.
Trump has railed against his former national security adviser, claiming the book is both full of “lies” but also contains classified information.
“Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction,” Trump tweeted Thursday.
