Trump slams ‘sick puppy’ Bolton for ‘fake’ quotes in book as ex-NSA fires back that president is not ‘fit for office’
DONALD Trump branded John Bolton a "sick puppy" and claimed his controversial new book is full of "fake" quotes after the ex-National Security Adviser claimed the president is "not fit for office."
Trump tweeted Thursday morning: "Bolton's book, which is getting terrible reviews, is a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad.
"Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction.
"Just trying to get even for firing him like the sick puppy he is!"
However, in an interview preview with released earlier that morning, Bolton said: "I don't think he's fit for office."
"I don't think he has the competence to carry out the job."
The feud between the pair erupted following the publication of Bolton's book The Room Where It Happened.
In the book, Bolton claimed:
- Trump asked if
- Pompeo said that Trump was ""
- Trump " to help him win 2020 election"
- William Barr
Bolton served in for roughly 17 months before Trump fired him in September 2019 after the two butted heads over how to handle foreign policy changes in , , and .
In his memoir, scheduled for release on June 23, Bolton .
Bolton also alleged Trump asked why the was sanctioning China over its treatment of Uighurs.
suspects Uighurs, who are predominantly Muslim and culturally and ethnically distinct from the majority Han Chinese population, of harboring separatist religious tendencies.
In recent years, China has dramatically escalated its campaign against them by detaining more than one million people in internment camps and prisons, which it calls vocational training centers.
Bolton wrote: “At the opening dinner of the Osaka G-20 meeting, with only interpreters present, Xi explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang."
"According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which he thought was exactly the right thing to do. ”
defended himself in an interview with , and said of his former national security adviser: "He is a liar ... everybody in the hated .”
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The president also told reporters on Monday that Bolton will have a "very strong criminal problem" if he proceeds in publishing the book.
Trump said: "If he wrote a book and if the book gets out, he's broken the law and I would think you would have criminal problems. I hope so."
He added: "If this guy is writing things about conversations or about anything — and maybe he is not telling the truth. He's been known not to tell the truth, a lot."