John Bolton recounts in his forthcoming memoir that PresidentDonald Trump said members of the news media are "scumbags" who should be "executed."- Bolton wrote that Trump made the comments in a July 2019 meeting in New Jersey, where he also suggested that more journalists should be jailed to compel them to reveal their sources.
- Both in his 2016 election campaign and again during his presidency, Trump $4so that journalists and news organizations can more easily be sued.
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton recounts in his forthcoming memoir that President Donald Trump said members of the news media are "scumbags" who should be "executed."
$4 which obtained a copy of Bolton's book "The Room Where It Happened" before its June 23 publication, reported that according to Bolton, Trump made the comments during a July 2019 meeting in New Jersey, where the Trump Organization owns a golf course and resort.
Bolton said that Trump, who has been extremely vocal about his displeasure with media coverage of his presidency, suggested that more journalists should be arrested and jailed so the government could compel them to reveal their sources.
"These people should be executed," Trump said in the meeting, according to Bolton. "They are scumbags."
Guy Snodgrass, a former speechwriter and aide to former Secretary of Defense James Mattis, confirmed in a Wednesday tweet that Trump made the remark about journalists being "scumbags" and repeated the same sentiment on another occasion. Mattis served as Secretary of Defense under Trump for two years from January 2017 to January 2019.
—Guy Snodgrass (@GuySnodgrass) $4
Both in his 2016 election campaign and again during his presidency, Trump $4so that journalists and news organizations can more easily be sued.
"We are going to take a strong look at our country's libel laws, so that when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts," Trump $4.
On Wednesday afternoon, $4, $4, and $4 published either excerpts of Bolton's upcoming book or stories based on pre-publication copies they obtained.
The book paints Trump in an extremely unflattering light, with Bolton characterizing Trump as an irrational and unfit president, especially on matters of national security and foreign policy, which was Bolton's area of expertise in the administration.
Bolton's book contains several bombshell allegations about Trump's erratic foreign policy strategy and deference to foreign authoritarians, including asking Chinese President Xi Jinping $4 to benefit American farmers (and thus, Trump's re-election) and telling Xi that keeping concentration camps for Uighur Muslims $4
Bolton himself had a complicated legacy in his 16-month tenure as Trump's National Security Advisor. $4t, Bolton takes "a scalpel" to several other senior administration officials but "seems to hold himself in high regard and admits few mistakes of his own."
Many Democrats have criticized him for not divulging his most bombshell revelations about Trump and his interactions with foreign leaders during Trump's impeachment proceedings and instead, making a significant profit off them with his book.
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