The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir Hardcover – June 23, 2020

This kindlebook that is The Room Where It Happened A White House Memoir by John Bolton Former National Security Advisor of the United States covers a wide swath of events in John Bolton’s life some predating before working for Donald Trump and many other circumstances after working for him. I pre-ordered this kindlebook The Room Where It Happened A White House Memoir by John Bolton Former National Security Advisor of the United States via Amazon by the January 29 2020 timeframe rationally and intuitively understanding I am very much outside the target audience for this kindlebook for obvious multiple reasons, one very obvious relates to my politics. However, I try to keep an open mind to other points of view even drastically different from my own when presented in a detailed, benevolent intent andor intent to further educate matter. I am truthfully far from certain who his core audience is, I understand there are other readers who are going to intuitively andor logically guess accurately and I am taking a wild guess one targeted demographic for this kindlebook are conservatives who are currently planning to vote for a third party candidate in the 2020 election. However, regardless if you are the intended demographic for this kindlebook, The Room Where It Happened can at least still provide some details on what went on in the White House that might have been only partially covered in multiple articles for obvious reasons during Bolton’s time working as a White House National Security Advisor. Because it is common knowledge that the Electoral College currently has significant influence on if a third party or a democratic president wins the election by November 4 2020, obviously only time will tell what impact this kindlebook is going to have on the November 2020 Presidential election. I would rather avoid saying for now what I think because I feel it would be too soon to declare if this kindlebook The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir by John Bolton Former National Security Advisor of the United States is going to swing the election towards a new third party or Democratic President (Joe Biden) in November 2020. What I will declare, regardless if my view is popular or in the minority, is I truly feel that one of the multiple reasons Bolton wrote this book was for intents to further inform voters from various walks of life of at least more candid perspectives on how the White House is currently being run that is far from always covered in mainstream articles for multiple reasons, one obvious reason even some former employees affiliated with the White House might be understandably concerned about what to say and if that would impact their future employment andor economic prospects for sharing certain unadulterated details even if they are 100% true. John Bolton shares an abundance of details about both his life and employment in the White House including: one of John Bolton’s earliest significant interactions with Donald Trump occurred around September 23, 2016 about 3 days before Trump’s first debate with Hillary Clinton, around the September 2016 timeframe John Bolton was: ( a Senior Fellow at The American Enterprise Institute Fox News Contributor, a regular on the speaking circuit of counsel at a major law firm, member of corporate boards, senior advisor to a global private equity firm and author of opinion articles at the rate of one per week), John Bolton served in the last 3 Republican Administrations , International Relations has fascinated Bolton since his days at Yale College, the author’s first political campaigning was in 1964 on behalf of Barry Goldwater, an August 29, 2019 Hill article reference titled Trump: U.S. To Keep 8600 Troops in Afghanistan after Taliban Deal, references to Dwight Eisenhower pages 37 and 69, Vladimir Putin and Trump and Bolton Trump discussion on Putin pages 151-152, Trump comments/views on Putin 44 63 127 156-157 186, Putin visit to Washington 128, Bolton trip to Russia pages 127-132, Trump discussions meetings with Putin pages 7 33-34 64 152-158 170 283 459 463, Nikki Haley Bolton views 451-452, Mike Pompeo references Nikki Haley 238 450-452, the attempt to make communication wires more tangle free: Trump gave Sarah Sanders press guidance that Russia was hit hard with sanctions and were considering more that would alleviate Nikki Haley’s comments made earlier that the Treasury would be announcing Russia sanctions on Monday, the previous Saturday preceding the Monday Nikki Haley announcement Bolton tried to talk the subject of sanctions with Trump Bolton then communicated with Steve Mnuchin of the Treasury and also inform the collaboration of NSC employees to inform sanctions were going to be off which was why the Monday announcement took Bolton by surprise, Why John Bolton thought it was reasonable to offer his services as Secretary of State and why someone named Chris Wallace came of the Fox set early one morning around November 9 to congratulate Bolton, John Bolton was concerned about Rex Tillerson because although Tillerson had been an employee at Exxon for 40 years there were few people that he surrounded himself with from the Foreign & Civil Services who could have helped him with their expertise rather he only surrounded himself with a few trusted assistants, the author quoted MSNBC Joe Scarborough who tweeted that he was far from supportive of former UN ambassador John Bolton for secretary of state though Scarborough apparently tweeted John Bolton is Thomas Jefferson in Paris compared to…, Some reasons why John Bolton feels that the Trump administration resembles the song “Hotel California” by The Eagles, the chain of professional/career events involving Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, Reince Priebus, Sarah Sanders and John Kelly, In August of that same year controversy erupted over Trump’s comments about Neo-Nazi demonstrations in Charlottesville Virginia and what occurred for Steve Bannon by August 18 of that year, some of the multiple reasons why John Bolton had agreed with John Kelly on certain topics pertaining to North Korea, what is the Sunshine Policy involving South Korea and North Korea that played a role in one of the Olympic Games and some reasons why John Bolton sees the Sunshine Policy in the way he does, On March 6 of a certain year John Bolton watched in the West room lobby television reporters asking Trump why he thought North Korea was ready to negotiate Trump replied happily “Me”, The “bloodletting” that occurred involving chairman of the national council Gary Cohn, Larry Kudlow, Rob Porter, Hope Hicks, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompep, Gina Haspell, Jeff Sessions, and Andrew McCabe, why John Bolton was concerned about the timing involving former Russian Spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury England meeting their deaths via chemical weapons around the same time that Trump congratulated a prominent Russian politician on winning re-election and despite the advice that H.R. McMaster gave Trump, the significance of Wednesday March 21 on a certain year while John Bolton was riding along a snowy George Washington memorial Parkway to do an interview at Fox’s D.C. studio (the federal government and most area schools and area businesses closed during this time) and why Bolton called his wife Gretchen and daughter Jennifer Sarah to tell them, some time after Bolton’s resignation he learned that chemical weapons were being used on civilian populations spearheaded by a politician in Syria, Mike Pompeo the Administration’s initial contact for North Korea as CIA Director was negotiating the summer venue and date and the prospect of releasing three America hostages North Korea’s Kim wanted two places for the summit Pompeo saw Geneva Switzerland and Singapore as the two most acceptable choices and what resulted from this, one such bizarre episode happened in mid-May one year that involved controversially harsh comments by Kelly Sadler a White House Communications Staffer about John McCain because her comments involved what she talked about pertaining to John McCain in relation to the vote on Gina Haspel’s nomination as CIA Director she was quoted saying “he was going to die anway” this leaked to the press and many people wanted her to show remorse for the comments apparently from what the author wrote Kelly Sadler instead got a promotion because of how Donald Trump felt about John McCain apparently Trump was even in an oval office meeting rewarding Kelly Sadler with a hug and kiss, During the controversy over McCain’s funeral Trump tweeted that White House counsel Donald McGahn was leaving at the end of Brett Cavanaugh’s confirmation battle, although Don McGahn had often joked to Bolton we’re only one tweet away this was a classic example of Trump’s announcing something already decided without giving Don McGahn a chance to announce it first, and much more.

John Bolton's Book "The Room Where it Happened" is a very interesting account of what happened during his tenure and what government officials, world leaders and Trump said in the White House and in other places. The stories told are quite amazing and sometimes shocking. The stories are not classified information as the book has been carefully vetted. People on the left may have a hard time with the book because they do not like Bolton, or they disagree with his dislike for Democrats and Obama. Trump supporters may not want to even consider reading this book. Therefore, this book may be more for centrist/independents, or people not so invested in their politics that they at least are open to entertaining the idea that the Trump Presidency is a disaster. I would still encourage everyone to try to read it because it contains so much important information about what has been going on over the last few years.The book describes intrigues, conflicts, dysfunction and a President who is vindictive, thoughtless, incompetent, unpredictable, does things on a whim, and who will not listen and cannot learn. He refuses to understand US national security issues and how alliances and international relations work. He is ignorant of even the basic knowledge of government affairs and the world and he has an enormous ego. The way I interpret what Bolton is saying about the impeachment process is that Trump has done things for which he should or could be impeached and convicted. However, the impeachment process was too narrow and too partisan, the second article was BS, and Bolton’s testimony would not have made a difference.There were some things that stood out to me. When Xi Jinping was telling Trump that there were political figures in the US hostile to China Trump assumed, he meant Democrats and answered, “Trump said approvingly that there was great hostility among the Democrats. He then, stunningly turned the conversation to the coming US Presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability to affect the campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win”. A few pages after this statement Trump encouraged Xi to put a Chinese ethnic minority in concentration camps. The page before, during negotiations to release two American citizens held hostage by China, Xi told Trump they are dual citizens. Trump just said "OK", shrugged his shoulders, and dropped it. So much for caring about American citizens.Another example is when Trump’s ego allowed Kim Jong Un (North Korea) to play him like a fiddle and give away US negotiating advantages to North Korea, especially joint military exercises. About the Kurds Trump said, “I don’t like the Kurds. They ran from the Iraqis, they ran from the Turks, the only time they don’t run is when we’re are bombing all around them with F-18s”. Trump’s pressure campaigns involving Halkbank, ZTE, and Huawei and others could be classified as “high crimes and misdemeanors” according to Bolton. Whether the Ukraine saga was impeachable or not, Trump’s behavior was disturbing and highly inappropriate to Bolton (and me). Trump threatened to adjourn Congress, wrongly citing a constitutional provision that has never been used. Trump said, “when somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s got to be”.The list of things that I found deeply disturbing is quite long. However, the many quite ignorant things that Trump said that Bolton mentions are both disturbing but also quite entertaining. Trump expressed great surprise when Theresa May told Trump that Britain was a Nuclear Power. Trump told Xi that he was the greatest Chinese leader in 300 years. Then the time when Trump arrives very late for the preparations for the meeting with the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and someone says the Japanese might be our best allies to which Trump angrily responds that they attacked Pearl Harbor. When the CFO of Huawei is arrested for espionage Trump said, “we have just arrested the Ivanka Trump of China”. When Trump thought Finland was part of Russia (remember he was going there for a meeting with Putin). When Trump agreed to recognize Guaido as the leader of Venezuela during the civil strife to get rid of Maduro Trump added unhelpfully “I want him to say he will be extremely loyal to the United States and no one else”. As a side note, Maduro was able to stay on largely thanks to Trump’s incompetence.Another example, the 2014 NATO Cardiff agreement requires all member states to spend 2% of their GDP on self-defense/military by 2024. Trump thought that meant that countries should spend 2% on NATO (well he most likely still think so). United States spends 4% of GDP on its military, which includes domestic defenses, Afghanistan, Middle East, Asia, NATO, everything. However, Trump thinks it means spending 4% on NATO, which is false, and no one can convince him otherwise. Trump spent the NATO summit berating NATO countries and even countries not part of NATO (Ukraine) referring to the false idea that US pay 4% of GDP to NATO and they pay less. Sure I (and John Bolton) agree that the Cardiff agreement should be followed but Trump's repeated lengthy attacks on the other members were misguided in its delivery.This book is really a large collection like the examples I’ve given. It is therefore quite interesting and entertaining reading. Who doesn’t like a few hundred crazy stories involving the world’s leaders, especially with Trump acting like Basil Fawlty on the world stage? It was sometimes hard to put this quite large book down. It was also disturbing reading. You certainly won’t feel that you are in good hands after reading this book.I didn’t agree with all of Bolton’s opinions and agendas and I think he is trying a bit too hard to appear to be the one who held it all together while it was still possible for him to stay on. However, the book conveys important information, it is well written, and Bolton is surely a great storyteller. I highly recommend this book.