- John Bolton's new tell-all book, titled "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," contains an antagonizing message to his former boss, President Donald Trump: "Game on."
- According to a photo of the book's back cover published by Axios in advance of its June 23 release, Bolton writes that Trump was "determined to prevent publication" of the memoir.
- "His reaction thus ranged from the mean-spirited to the constitutionally impermissible," Bolton said of Trump. "My reaction ... my response? Game on."
- Last week, Bolton's lawyer published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, accusing the White House of blocking the publication of Bolton's book.
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John Bolton's new tell-all book, titled "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," contains an antagonizing message to his former boss, President Donald Trump: "Game on."
According to Axios, which published the book's back cover in advance of its June 23 release, Bolton writes that Trump was "determined to prevent publication" of the memoir and made "outright threats of censorship" during its drafting.
"As if impeachment were not enough, I also found myself confronting the daunting challenge of fighting an incumbent president determined to prevent publication of a book about my White House experience," Bolton writes. "Trump behaved typically, directing the seizure and withholding of my advisor's personal and other unclassified documents, despite numerous requests for their return; obstructing my Twitter account; and making outright threats of censorship."
"His reaction thus ranged from the mean-spirited to the constitutionally impermissible," he continues. "My reaction ... my response? Game on."
A source told Axios that Bolton's book will contain direct quotes from Trump and other senior officials that give greater context to Trump's conduct in the Oval Office.
The source added that the book will go beyond the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — which became the subject of Trump's impeachment and subsequent Senate trial — and will argue that there was additional "misconduct with other countries."
Last week, Bolton's lawyer published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, accusing the White House of blocking the publication of Bolton's book. In his op-ed, Chuck Cooper said Trump officials were using national security "as a pretext to prevent the publication" of the memoir.
On June 8, Trump's deputy counsel for national security, John Eisenberg, wrote a letter to Cooper stating that the current manuscript "still contains classified material," and that a redacted copy of the manuscript would be sent to Bolton by June 19.
But according to Cooper, Bolton, who resigned from the Trump administration in September 2019, "took care as he wrote to avoid revealing anything that might be classified."
Cooper said Bolton spent months going through repeated edits of his manuscript with a senior national security director, "often line by line." He added that Bolton revised the manuscript following the director's guidance and his own notes.
But Cooper asserted in his op-ed that Bolton has made numerous edits to his book in accordance with White House guidance, and would still be publishing the book on June 23.
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