More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
John Bolton
Read between
October 31 - November 1, 2020
“Play it down,” said Trump, which was yet again the wrong approach, but which reflected his view that if you pretended bad things hadn’t happened, perhaps no one else would notice.
Kushner was on the phone to David Friedman, US Ambassador to Israel, telling Friedman that he was not going to allow Netanyahu’s call to go through. (Now we knew who was stopping all those calls to Trump!)
If only Trump could keep it straight that incumbent President Ghani was not former President Karzai, we could have spared ourselves a lot of trouble.
including that CNN had earlier reported this very meeting. “These people should be executed, they are scumbags,”
This led to one of Trump’s favorite legal gambits, namely, that the Justice Department arrest the reporters, force them to serve time in jail, and then demand they disclose their sources. Only then would the leaks stop.
He said he didn’t remember agreeing to Fort Trump, which reflected on either his memory or his ability to disregard whatever he didn’t want to remember.
Trump posed what was always his key question: “How bad will this deal make me look? The Democrats would trash a great agreement.”
Then Trump blew the whole meeting away by saying, “I want to speak to the Taliban. Let them come to Washington.” I could not have been happier that I was in a secure room deep in Eastern Europe rather than in the Sit Room when I heard that statement. Trump asked Pence what he thought, and Pence replied carefully, “We should reflect before we make that decision. They have abused and oppressed their people. Have they actually changed?” Trump then referred to Billy Graham’s grandson, a major who had served in Afghanistan, who said, “We took their land.” “Why is he only a major?” Trump asked
...more
“He’s good-looking, right from central casting.”
Only Trump could conceive of a President of the United States meeting with these thugs, but by so doing, he was threatening the very deal Pompeo
The Taliban would like to talk to Donald Trump to talk peace. We should say to the press that the President has agreed to a meeting, and he’s looking forward to the meeting.” I could sense even through my remote connection (and Kupperman agreed later) that Pompeo and others in the Sit Room were close to meltdown. Pence added, “To meet with Ghani and others in the Afghan government,” and Trump agreed, “Yes, and before the meeting with the Taliban.”
Trump was determined to proceed. He worried that too-intrusive security measures would offend the Taliban’s dignity. This
Throughout my West Wing tenure, Trump wanted to do what he wanted to do, based on what he knew and what he saw as his own best personal interests. And in Ukraine, he seemed finally able to have it all.
At this meeting, I learned Giuliani was the source of the stories about Yovanovitch, who he said was being protected by a Deputy Assistant Secretary in State’s European bureau, George Kent (I don’t think Giuliani knew Kent’s job title accurately; Pompeo clarified it for me later). Trump again said Yovanovitch should be fired immediately. I reached Pompeo by phone in the late afternoon to relay this latest news, now with the update that it came from Giuliani.
said she was trying to reduce corruption in Ukraine and may well have been going after some of Giuliani’s clients.
Giuliani was delivering what was all third-or-fourth-degree hearsay; he offered no evidence on the call for his allegations.
He again mentioned his previous conversations with Giuliani, who couldn’t describe in any detail what had supposedly happened but who had raised it constantly with Trump over the past several months.
whether Giuliani had ethical problems under the lawyers’ Code of Professional Responsibility for using one attorney-client relationship to advance the interests of another client,
Barr said he was very worried about the appearances Trump was creating, especially his remarks on Halkbank to Erdogan in Buenos Aires at the G20 meeting, what he said to Xi Jinping on ZTE, and other exchanges. I had had essentially this same conversation with Cipollone and Eisenberg for about an hour on January 22, shortly after Cipollone replaced McGahn on December 10, 2018. At that time, we discussed Halkbank, ZTE, a Turkish agent Israel had arrested (and Trump had gotten released during his July stay at Turnberry in calls with Netanyahu), the question whether to lift US sanctions against
...more
Even earlier, on December 10, prompted by Trump’s Christmas party remarks on Huawei and the Uighurs, I spoke to Pompeo on these problems, and also on questions about the settlements of some of Trump’s personal legal issues. The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn’t accept.
Trump called Putin on May 3, because, as he said with no apparent basis, Putin was “dying” to talk to him. In fact, Trump was “dying” to talk, having not had a real conversation with Putin since the Kerch Strait incident forced cancellation of their bilateral at the Buenos Aires G20.
The subject was Ukraine, and Giuliani’s desire to meet with President-Elect Zelensky to discuss his country’s investigation of either Hillary Clinton’s efforts
influence the 2016 campaign or something having to do with Hunter Biden and the 2020 election, or maybe both.
Even after they became public, I could barely separate the strands of the multiple conspiracy theories at work.
Giuliani also said he was after an official at State, last name of Kent, who Giuliani said was in league with George Soros and very hostile to Trump. I had heard the name before in connection with Yovanovitch but didn’t know him from Adam.
The three of us agreed Giuliani couldn’t be allowed to go to Ukraine, but the brouhaha also made it uncertain who from the Trump Administration could attend Zelensky’s inauguration, given the adverse publicity it might receive.
It also became increasingly plain, not only to me but to others as well, including Fiona Hill, the NSC Senior Director for Europe and Russia, that Trump completely accepted Giuliani’s line that the “Russia collusion” narrative, invented by domestic US political adversaries, had been run through Ukraine. In other words, Trump was buying the idea that Ukraine was actually responsible for carrying out Moscow’s efforts to hack US elections. That clearly meant we wouldn’t be doing anything nice for Ukraine any time
Perry, Sondland, Volker, and Senator Ron Johnson. It was a classic. “I don’t want to have any fucking thing to do with Ukraine,” said Trump, per Kupperman. “They fucking attacked me. I can’t understand why. Ask Joe diGenova, he knows all about it. They tried to fuck me. They’re corrupt. I’m not fucking with them.” All this, he said, pertained to the Clinton campaign’s efforts, aided by Hunter Biden, to harm Trump in 2016 and 2020.
There were also rumors Perry was leaving the Administration in the near future, so the “ninety day” figure squared with the notion he wanted the time to achieve something in Ukraine.
Then it was off to Ukraine and a $250 million assistance program for weapons purchases. “Did you approve it, John?” I said it was a congressional earmark that the Defense Department was proceeding with. “How stupid is this?” Trump asked. “Germany doesn’t spend on neighboring countries. Angela says, ‘We don’t spend because it’s a neighboring country.’10 John, do you agree on Ukraine?” I didn’t answer directly, worrying about what had suddenly made Trump pay attention to this particular military assistance.
This was likely the first time I heard security assistance to Ukraine called into question, but the real issue was how Trump found out about it, and who came up with the idea to use it as leverage against Zelensky and his new government.
the Ukraine security assistance was at risk of being swallowed by the Ukraine fantasy conspiracy theories.
When, in 1992, Bush 41 supporters suggested he ask foreign governments to help out in his failing campaign against Bill Clinton, Bush and Jim Baker completely rejected the idea.13 Trump did the precise opposite.
On August 1, I spoke with Barr to brief him on what Trump said to Zelensky about Giuliani, and Trump’s references to Barr himself. I suggested he have someone rein Giuliani in before he got completely out of control. We also discussed the status of Halkbank, and the still-pending question of sanctioning Turkey for purchasing Russian S-400 air defense systems. Barr said he was waiting to hear back from Halkbank’s counsel on the Justice Department’s latest settlement offer. (On October 15, just after I left the Administration, the Justice Department returned a blistering indictment against
...more
The correct course was to separate the Ukraine security assistance from the Ukraine fantasies, get the military aid approved, and deal with Giuliani and the fantasies later.
Sondland later testified that he had been “invited at the very last minute.” He invited himself over near-physical efforts by the VP’s advance people to keep him out.
Of course, most of the negative reaction he had brought on himself by his ill-advised tweets.
(Mostly, I believed the leaks were being directed by Pompeo and Mulvaney.)
The consequences of this partisan approach by the House were twofold. First, it narrowed the scope of the impeachment inquiry dramatically and provided no opportunity to explore Trump’s ham-handed involvement in other matters—criminal and civil, international and domestic—that should not properly be subject to manipulation by a President for personal reasons (political, economic, or any other). This is not to say that I have any doubts about a President’s Article II authority over the Department of Justice. But it does mean that a President’s Constitutional obligation to “take care that the
...more
Had the House not focused solely on the Ukraine aspects of Trump’s confusion of his personal interests (whether political or economic), but on the broader pattern of his behavior—including his pressure campaigns involving Halkbank, ZTE, and Huawei among others—there might have been a greater chance to persuade others that “high crimes and misdemeanors” had been perpetrated.
In fact, I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations.
Senate, of course, declined to hear any witnesses, and went on to acquit Trump on the two articles of impeachment the House had adopted. Had a Senate majority agreed to call witnesses and had I testified, I am convinced, given the environment then existing because of the House’s impeachment malpractice, that it would have made no significant difference in the Senate outcome.
As this memoir demonstrates, many of Trump’s national security decisions hinged more on political than on philosophy, strategy or foreign policy and defense rationales.
In a very small number of cases, I was prevented from conveying information that I thought was not properly classifiable, since it revealed information that can only be described as embarrassing to Trump, or as indicative of possible impermissible behavior. I plan to continue to fight for either the declassification of these passages, or the right to use direct quotations in subsequent editions of this book or other writings.
