Bolton says Trump approved of Chinese President Xi building Uighur concentration camps
The jaw-dropping allegations from John Bolton's book just keep coming.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published an excerpt from the upcoming book from President Trump's former national security adviser, The Room Where It Happened, in which Bolton details a 2019 conversation Trump had with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"According to our interpreter, Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do," Bolton writes, adding that a National Security Council staffer says Trump "said something very similar during his November 2017 trip to China."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year said the U.S. calls on China "to immediately end its campaign of repression in Xinjiang" and "release all those arbitrarily detained" amid its "highly repressive campaign against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) that includes mass detentions in internment camps."
Bolton also alleges that Trump once "refused to issue a White House statement" on the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, wrongly saying "that was 15 years ago" and asking, "Who cares about it?" He additionally writes that Trump heaped praise on Xi by telling him "you're the greatest Chinese leader in 300 years" before deciding actually, he's "the greatest leader in Chinese history."
Shortly after this allegation from Bolton was made public on Wednesday, Trump signed the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 into law.
-
Film reviews: ‘Send Help’ and ‘Private Life’Feature An office doormat is stranded alone with her awful boss and a frazzled therapist turns amateur murder investigator
-
Movies to watch in Februarythe week recommends Time travelers, multiverse hoppers and an Iraqi parable highlight this month’s offerings during the depths of winter
-
ICE’s facial scanning is the tip of the surveillance icebergIN THE SPOTLIGHT Federal troops are increasingly turning to high-tech tracking tools that push the boundaries of personal privacy
-
Trump sues IRS for $10B over tax record leaksSpeed Read The president is claiming ‘reputational and financial harm’ from leaks of his tax information between 2018 and 2020
-
Trump, Senate Democrats reach DHS funding dealSpeed Read The deal will fund most of the government through September and the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks
-
Fed holds rates steady, bucking Trump pressureSpeed Read The Federal Reserve voted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged
-
Judge slams ICE violations amid growing backlashSpeed Read ‘ICE is not a law unto itself,’ said a federal judge after the agency violated at least 96 court orders
-
Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked with unknown liquidSpeed Read This ‘small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work’
-
Democrats pledge Noem impeachment if not firedSpeed Read Trump is publicly defending the Homeland Security secretary
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
-
Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Kelly over videospeed read Retired Navy fighter pilot Mark Kelly appeared in a video reminding military service members that they can ‘refuse illegal orders’
