Politics

New Book Alleges Trump Wanted COVID-19 To Kill John Bolton

(Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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A new book titled “Nightmare Scenario” alleges that former President Donald Trump spoke about the possibility that COVID-19 might kill former national security adviser John Bolton.

Axios published an excerpt of the book, written by Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, due out Tuesday:

Trump had tried to joke about the virus for months, sometimes even mocking people who had become ill. … At one meeting several months [before Trump got sick], NEC director Larry Kudlow had stifled a cough. The room had frozen.. … Trump had waved his hands in front of his face, as if to jokingly ward off any flying virus particles, and then cracked a smile. “I was just kidding,” he’d said. “Larry will never get COVID. He will defeat it with his optimism.” … “John Bolton,” he had said … “Hopefully COVID takes out John.”

Axios’ Jonathan Swan asked Bolton about Trump’s alleged comment, and Bolton replied simply, “Fooled me — I thought he was relying on his lawyers.” (RELATED: ‘Throwing Rocks Through Windows’: John Bolton Calls Trump ‘The Political Equivalent Of A Street Rioter’)

Bolton worked in the Trump administration as the national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019 and played a role in taking the United States out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more commonly referred to as the Iran nuclear deal.

He had previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under former President George W. Bush and as Assistant Attorney General under former President Ronald Reagan. After leaving the Trump administration under less than favorable terms, Bolton aired a number of his grievances with Trump in his book titled, “The Room Where It Happened.”