Trump not ‘fit for office’: Bolton

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump is not “fit” for the office of United States presidency, his former national security adviser John Bolton has said in an interview with a US news network, adding that Trump does not have “the competence to carry out the job”.

“I don’t think he’s fit for office. I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job,” he told media on Sunday ahead of the Tuesday release of his tell-all book, The Room Where it Happened, which contains many damning allegations against Trump.

“I hope (history) will remember him as a one-term president … We can get over one term,” said Bolton, who was fired by Trump last September after 17 months in his job.

Bolton added that he will vote for neither Trump nor Democrat Joe Biden in the November presidential elections. Instead, he will “figure out a conservative Republican to write in” on the ballot.

Trump unsuccessfully tried to halt publication of the book in which Bolton characterises Trump as “stunningly uninformed”.

The US president has called Bolton a “wacko”, adding that the book is “made up of lies and fake stories”.

Bolton said he thinks North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “gets a huge laugh” over Trump’s perception of their relationship.

When journalist Martha Raddatz asked if Trump “really believes Kim Jong Un loves him,” Bolton replied he could see no other explanation.

“I think Kim Jong Un gets a huge laugh out of this,” Bolton said. “These letters that the president has shown to the press … are written by some functionary in the North Korean Workers’ Party agitprop office.

“And yet, the president has looked at them as evidence of this deep friendship,” he said, adding that friendship does not amount to international diplomacy.

Trump’s administration had sought to halt publication of Bolton’s book, but a US judge refused on Saturday to block its release, saying it was too late for a restraining order.

The Room Where it Happened is Bolton’s portrait of 17 months up close with Trump until he was fired last September.

In his interview, Bolton said he had resigned, noting that the “last straw” for him was when Trump invited the Taliban to Camp David during Afghan peace negotiations.

Bolton’s book, which Trump describes as “fiction,” describes the president “pleading” with Chinese President Xi Jinping during trade negotiations to boost the US president’s chances of re-election.

Moreover, Bolton backs up the allegations at the centre of Trump’s impeachment last year that he pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt to weaken Biden’s presidential bid.

Both Republican and Democratic politicians have criticised Bolton for publishing his book, saying he should have instead come forward during the impeachment process.

The House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Democrat Adam Schiff, told NBC’s Meet the Press earlier on Sunday that Bolton “indicts himself, for cowardice and for greed” by making his accusations in a book instead of testifying in front of the impeachment hearings.

Republican senator Tim Scott told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that he also wished Bolton “would have come into the House under oath and testified”. (Int’l News Desk)