Donald Trump takes a dim view of his French counterpart, according to former US National Security Adviser John Bolton, writing in his memoir.
Trump reportedly believes that “that everything the French president, Emmanuel Macron, touches ‘turns to s**t,’” the Guardian newspaper quoted Bolton as saying.
The explosive claim was reported on Friday by British newspaper, which gained a preview of Bolton’s book, which is due to be published next week. The US president earlier said the memoir is full of lies, and that his former adviser was merely seeking payback through slander after being fired.
The Guardian report also touches on US relations with the UK and its Prime Minister Boris Johnson. According to Bolton, Trump ranks Johnson as a close partner, on a par with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Portions of the yet-to-be-published book were previously described by leading US media outlets. Bolton, a veteran warmonger, was apparently irritated with the Trump administration’s failure to meet his expectations for hardline foreign policies.
For example, he called the president’s refusal to respond to Iran’s shootdown of a US military drone with a full-scale bombing raid on Iranian military “the most irrational thing” he had ever witnessed from an American leader.
Trump reacted to the revelations by saying that parts of Bolton’s book were “pure fiction” and that the author was a “sick puppy” disgruntled by his dismissal.
The book also talks about UK’s reliance on Chinese technology for deploying 5G networks, the attitude in Washington to Brexit and UK’s failure to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, and the mutual dislike between Trump and Theresa May, Johnson’s predecessor as prime minister.
