Trump ‘pleaded’ with China’s Xi Jinping to help him win 2020 election, John Bolton says in new book
- Former national security adviser also alleges that Trump said ‘I don’t want to get involved’ in Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrations
- Bolton also wrote that Trump told Xi that China’s treatment of the Uygur minority in Xinjiang ‘was exactly the right thing to do’
In a meeting with Xi during last year’s G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, “Trump … stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming US presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win”, Bolton wrote.
The excerpt of Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, was published by The Wall Street Journal under the former Trump administration official’s byline.
The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Bolton on Tuesday, seeking to stop publication on the grounds that it violates a non-disclosure agreement he signed before assuming his post in 2018.
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Trump ‘pleaded’ for China to help him get re-elected, writes former US adviser Bolton in new book
“[Trump] stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome,” Bolton wrote. “I would print Trump’s exact words, but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.
“Trump’s conversations with Xi reflected not only the incoherence in his trade policy but also the confluence in Trump’s mind of his own political interests and US national interests.
