In conclusion of my review of John Bolton’s book – The Room Where It Happened, I will share a short list of some of his enablers and a few tit bits I learnt from the book.
Everybody knows that Senator Lindsey Graham is in a very close race to be King Trump’s number one enabler. John Bolton confirms that the hypocritical Senator told him to stay out of the administration. Amazing that Senator Graham recognises what a shitshow of an administration his best pal is running but will pretend otherwise in public.
Rex Tillerson was another enabler. King Trump has been very unkind to him. Bolton is also disparaging of him and McMaster. The book is littered with many examples of Tillerson trying to circumvent Trump’s childish directive. It appears Tillerson’s actions have been influenced by the fact that he did not recognise the legitimacy of Trump’s election victory. It then begs the question why he chose to serve someone he perceived as an illegitimate president. Amazing that people like him, McMaster and Kelly have chosen not to write books like Bolton. I wonder if King Trump has something on them or maybe unlike Bolton, ‘they mix their omerta and politics’.
There are other notable names you don’t expect but can glean from the book. Condoleezza Rice is one of these. Offering support to the administration via at least one on – the – record call to Vice President Pence. If you think differently, please read this article
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/28/condoleezza-rice-president-donald-trump-stands-for-american-values.html
General Kelly, King Trump’s former Chief of Staff and the first official to see him at the start of the day and the last to see him at the end couldn’t wait to leave the administration. Why did he wait? Why didn’t he quit at the first opportunity?
General Mattis too. His one-time Secretary of Defence and a latter-day critic was very flattering of King Trump in the way Trump dealt with the fallout of the Access Hollywood tape. He told Trump he was courageous. A decorated general commending a person who had just told the whole world he was a serial abuser of women.
King Trump’s party the GOP are also collaborators. On the issue of the Syria withdrawal, they disagreed with Trump but decided not to make a fuss. This was a national security issue, nothing to do with appointing Supreme Court Justices, tax cuts etc. Many might want to hide under the excuse that King Trump is unhinged but Bolton’s book shows that if enough Republicans stand up against King Trump, he backs off. They are enablers for not doing this enough. They kept quiet. They should realise they won’t have the same leverage if he wins re – election.
Maybe like me you have never heard the name Kelly Sadler before now and it is likely you might never hear it again. She was rewarded with a hug and kiss by King Trump for saying Senator John McCain is about to die anyway in a disparaging manner. There is no depth King Trump won’t plumb.
Trump’s PA Madeleine Westerhout is one of the handlers of his social media account. So, if you see a terribly composed tweet from that account, you have a rough idea who has sent it out. She probably leaves the meaningless ones for her boss. She is presumably another one just obeying orders to tweet and retweet racist posts, lies and abuse of government officials and political opponents.
It is amazing how all of these latter day saints including Bolton didn’t quit as they saw all the things they are now reporting. They only left the government because the King disrespected them and in Bolton’s case accused him of leaking stories. Bolton did not categorically deny this accusation in his book. They rode the tiger and ended up in its belly. Bolton and Kelly and perhaps Pompeo realised the King wasn’t up to the job and they knew that if the US had a national crisis, King Trump will be useless as we have seen from his current handling of the Covid19 pandemic.
And now for the tit bits
There is a statistic in the book that highlights why China is now taking a hard-line approach towards Hong Kong. In 1997 when the British government handed over Hong Kong to China, it represented 20% of China’s economy. Now it is only 2%.
Significant proportion of South Korean politicians believe in the reunification of both Koreas. They don’t believe that sanctions against North Korea should be enforced. Sometimes the countries who claim to impose sanctions are the ones who breach the sanctions. Perhaps the South Korean viewpoint is humanitarian or for vote winning purposes. Meanwhile some of us busybodies take the side of South Korea while North Korea threatens to wipe out the South.
South Korea pays the US close to One billion US dollars per annum for US military presence in their country. Japan pays about Two and a half billion US dollars for the same pleasure. America in turns spends about Six and a half billion US dollars on the Afghan government and a further 50 billion dollars per annum to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. To put that in context, that is one and a half times Nigeria’s annual budget. This is not surprising as one drone used by the American military cost $146m. One of this was shot down by the Iranians a while ago.
First Ladies are very powerful as you might all know. A huge national government announcement was moved because the Queen’s Step Mother Melania Trump had an event. The Trump administration did not want to detract from Melania’s program. Also, the First Lady wanted the Deputy National Security Adviser of the country fired. Can you imagine how the Western Media would have reported this story if Melania was the first lady of an African Country?
Bolton’s book confirms the influence of Jared Kushner – Queen Ivanka’s husband. Bolton signals in his book that Kushner was very influential in him getting the NSA job. Kushner’s influence is seen throughout the book – negotiating peace deals outside of his Middle East remit, receiving calls from then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to pledge UK’s support for America’s response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons. He appears to be the big beast behind Nikki Haley as she (Nikki) is certain Queen Ivanka and Jared have her back. She was thus left alone to do whatever she wanted including not speaking with her boss, Tillerson. Both Ivanka and Jared also appear to have installed Mick Mulvaney as King Trump’s Chief of Staff.
King Trump reportedly claimed that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called then US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley the C word (supposedly female body part). It is unclear if this is one of the numerous occasions Bolton appears to be claiming that Trump has imagined something that never happened.
The May 2018 US strike on Syria received tacit Russia support despite the public statement issued by President Putin after the strike. Meticulous effort went into avoiding Russian casualties on ground.
In 1990, about 4% of Americans had a passport. Presumably 94% of Americans had never ventured out of their country then. Now 45% of Americans have a passport – https://blogs.voanews.com/all-about-america/2018/01/18/record-number-of-americans-hold-passports/
While King Trump definitely has a passport, it is doubtful if he understands the world, he lives in. He asked his Chief of Staff if Finland was in Russia. He also wanted to know if Britain was a nuclear power. King Trump also didn’t know the difference between former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and he current one Ashraf Ghani.
King Trump’s behaviour on Ukraine was not a one off. He tried his best to do the same with sale of F16 jets to Taiwan. He was lucky he didn’t get impeached a second time for that.
King Trump wanted to grant White South African farmers asylum and citizenship in the USA because he didn’t like the treatment, they were receiving in South Africa.
Emmanuel Macron is not portrayed in good light at all. He comes across as a light weight in the book. King Trump reportedly said everything Macron touches, turns to shit. That might be true of either man to be fair.
Bolton believes Trump, Moon (South Korea’s Prime Minister) & Abe are doing Kim Jon Un’s bidding either deliberately or inadvertently. He believes they are encouraging the North Korean dictator. Bolton claims that the North Korean nation has been a terrorist nation for 3 generations.
King Trump directed Attorney General William Barr to prosecute John Kerry, Obama’s Secretary State. When asked by Senator Kamala Harris now VP candidate whether the President has ever asked him to prosecute someone, Barr lied that he had not.
King Trump appears to be allergic to those who tell the truth. White House Counsel Don McGahn was too truthful in his testimony to the Mueller investigation. He had to leave the government subsequently.
John Bolton summarises Brexit very well. If there are any Remoaners around, they will do well to read his take on the EU and the 2019 referendum.
I will recommend the book to those who are yet to read it especially if you have £20 / $20 / 20 Euros or 10,000 naira that you are not using.
Baba Grumpy works in financial services in the United Kingdom. He blogs mostly about football at http://babagrumpy.blogspot.co.uk. His Twitter handle is @BabaGrumpy
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