Former US National Security Adviser John Bolton with President Trump in the Oval Office in Washington, DC, on 28 September 2018. File photo/Getty Images/The Washington Post/Oliver Contreras
By Lobsang Wangyal
ON THE WEB, 25 June 2020
US President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser (NSA) John Bolton in a tell-all book has said that Trump denied a request by former United States ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley to meet with the Dalai Lama.
The 600-page book, titled The Room Where It Happened, was released on Tuesday. Among the many explosive revelations in the book, there are two take-aways for Tibetans, albeit in a negative context.
In the book, Bolton writes that Haley sought Trump’s permission in June 2018 to take a diplomatic envoy to India to meet with the Dalai Lama.
“The purpose of this trip was unclear, other than getting a photo op with the Dalai Lama, always good for an aspiring pol,” Bolton writes. “But the minefield she strayed into by raising the China trade issue showed a political tin ear: Once Trump wondered how China would view Haley’s seeing the Dalai Lama, the trip was essentially dead.”
Most notably, Bolton claims that Trump asked China to use its economic power to help him in his re-election in the 2020 US elections in November, according to numerous reports. This wipes the high expectations for Trump by many Tibetans that he would raise the Tibetan issue, and particularly their view that he is confronting China.
“Make sure I win,” Trump allegedly told Chinese President Xi Jinping during a dinner at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, in June 2019. “I will probably win anyway, so don’t hurt my farms. Buy a lot of soybeans and wheat and make sure we win.”
Giving his judgment, Bolton, after serving 17 months as President Trump’s top national security official, has said that Trump cares only about his re-election, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation. “I don’t think he’s fit for office. I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job.”
Blasting Bolton for the book The Room Where It Happened, Trump last week on Twitter called it “a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad”.
The Trump administration tried to have the book blocked from publication, alleging it contained “classified information”, but federal judge Royce C Lamberth of the District of Columbia denied the request.
“This was Bolton’s bet: If he is right and the book does not contain classified information, he keeps the upside; but if he is wrong, he stands to lose his profits from the book deal, exposes himself to criminal liability, and imperils national security,” the judge said.
Publisher Simon & Schuster reportedly paid Bolton an advance of $2 million, plus sales profits, for his tell-all book, but if he is found to have revealed any “classified information’, the $2-million advance may be forfeited and he may be liable to criminal prosecution for violating nondisclosure agreements.
Bolton, a security expert, who served as Trump’s third national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, left the White House after numerous disagreements with the president.
Trump will face presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the November elections.
Trump has been an unpopular president. Except for the right wing white supremacists, the pharma and the gun lobbyists, nobody likes him. People around the world detest him, because his policies have been dangerous and destructive.
Tibet has never been on his agenda. He nearly cut the ongoing fundings to CTA, shut down the Tibetan radio services in VOA and RFA, never appointed the Special Coordinator for Tibet in State Department, and never seen him speak about Tibet.
Despite all these odds about Trump, I see many Tibetans liking and supporting him. They think he is standing against China. Now, as Bolton has claimed, he is hand in glove with China. Why don’t they still understand that he is not someone to hope for anything good for Tibet?
Trump is tough on trade with China–this is one belief that those who support Trump like to say.
But Trump just let China import Chicken from the USA and export to the USA in neat slices and packages: with the blessings of the Republican Congress that said the packages cannot show the origin of the meat sold in packages in the USA.
Right wing pros use the word “lib tard” to mean liberal retards and I suppose the “Ex” is to signify an evolution.
Maybe: actions speak louder than posts.
Who supports the Machiavalian Prince and the CCP Prince of Darkness?
you guys should read the comment by one mimsy in phayul to this same post.
The veil is lifting and becoming more clear each day.
It’s a tragic accident that Trump became the President of the US. It has to do with money and dodgy dealings that American democracy has come to be acknowledged. As Bolton pointed out, he has no experience in foreign policy nor the craft of a politician. He wanted to become the President purely to feed his ego.
He is a narcissist and with that mentality his political platform came fo be “America First”, a slum mentality that seeks profit and care only for America. Such narrow and selfish mentality shows the nature of himself. It’s the perfact reflection of Bolton’s assertion, “he only cares for himself”.
With this obnoxious attitude, he alienated all of America’s partners in Europe and Asia. He riled at NATO as an obsolete Organization and chastised Europe, Japan and S Korea to pay up their “dues”. Ultimately he lost most of America’s allies. That’s how he made America great!
Nikki Haley was one official who stood by Trump but being an Indian origin American, perhaps, she had a soft heart for Tibet and the Dalai Lama. She must have felt her administration had failed Tibet and wanted to show support by meeting the Dalai Lama, but Trump had already pledged Xi, not to meet the Tibetan leader in return for the dictator’s help to win him the election. So, obviously he didn’t allow her to go to India to meet the Tibetan leader.
America is a super power not just militarily, but because of the values that it upholds for the good of humanity. Democracy, human rights, rule of law and freedom of speech are universal values which makes America a great nation that others envy. Unfortunately, Trump has relinquished all these values and instead gravitated towards totalitarian despots like Xi, Kim and Putin. He sold the values which made America great, down the drain.
Stop watching fake news CNN, BBC, MSNBC, etc. Go look for some alternative media, go check out – “TFIglobal” channel on youtube and get some real news.
Almost everything on mainstream media is fake. If you don’t wake up now you’re just prolonging the problem.
You are absolutely correct in your statement. He has destroyed the country which had problems already but not to the extent it does now. he cares only for himself. The only reason he signed the last two bills in support of Tibet was because a Republican introduced them. I’m grateful he did but make no mistake. He didn’t read them and has no idea what they are about. He is a con man and a liar. America is rapid it’s collective karma and it’s not good.