John Bolton reportedly wrote in his upcoming book that President Trump once said journalists should be jailed or executed.
The alleged comments came during a summer 2019 meeting in New Jersey. Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, claimed that the president said journalists should be jailed so that they would have to reveal their sources on stories.
“These people should be executed. They are scumbags,” Trump said, according to Bolton’s book, a leaked copy of which was obtained by the Washington Post.
The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir has not yet been released and is mired in controversy. The Trump administration filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block its publication, with the Justice Department arguing it contains classified information. Bolton’s team is moving forward with plans to release the book to the public on June 23.
In the 592-page book, Bolton also makes the explosive claim that Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if China could help his reelection campaign by purchasing agricultural products, which Trump allegedly said would help him get support from farmers.
“He then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win,” Bolton reportedly wrote. “He stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump’s exact words but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.”
The memoir also alleges that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo once wrote disparaging notes about Trump to Bolton. The former national security adviser claimed Pompeo wrote that talks with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un had “zero probability of success” and said Trump was “full of shit.”
