Days before he got sick with the coronavirus, former President Donald Trump said that he hoped the COVID-19 pandemic “takes out” his former national security adviser John Bolton, who was seen as a potential witness, according to a forthcoming book written by Washington Post reporters Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, Axios reports.
The book, “Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History,” focuses on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the news outlet.
“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,'” an excerpt from the book obtained by the news outlet reads.
“‘John Bolton,’ he had said … ‘Hopefully COVID takes out John,'” Trump said during the meeting, according to the book.
Another excerpt from the book claims that Trump suggested sending returning Americans who contracted COVID-19 abroad to Guantanamo Bay in the early days of the pandemic.
When reached for comment by Axios, Bolton said: “Fooled me — I thought he was relying on his lawyers.”
A year after leaving the Trump administration in 2019, Bolton published his own book, “The Room Where It Happened,” in which he alleged that Trump had attempted to use U.S. foreign policy maneuvers to secure his victory in the 2020 presidential campaign.
The Trump administration had attempted to block the publication of Bolton’s book. However, a federal judge later shot down this attempt. Additionally, Trump’s DOJ launched a criminal investigation into Bolton, which was dropped last week.
