Trump's tweets contradict administration's claims that Bolton's book is full of classified information


John Bolton's book is somehow both "lies" and "classified information," President Trump and his team are claiming.
Before the former national security adviser published his White House memoir The Room Where It Happened, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to get its publication delayed, claiming Bolton didn't submit the manuscript for a White House review and was set to air "classified information." But now that the book is in the hands of journalists and Bolton's grievances are out in the world, Trump has pivoted to decrying the book's alleged "lies and fake stories."
Bolton's book claims Trump encouraged China's president to build concentration camps, called for journalists to be executed, and asserts Trump should've been impeached for more than just his Ukraine scandal. Trump took a stab at dispelling all that in a tweet just after midnight Thursday, calling the book "made up of lies and fake stories" and saying Bolton was "a disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war." He said something similar in another tweet a few hours later.
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.
When responders started questioning just how both things could be true, the White House's Director of Strategic Communications tried to clear it up. Kathryn Krawczyk
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Scorching hot sauces that pack a punch
The Week Recommends The best sauces to tingle your lips and add a fiery kick to your food
-
Syria’s strange post-Assad election
The Explainer Sunday’s limited vote ‘suited the phase Syria is undergoing’, says interim president
-
Why did the China spying case collapse?
Today’s Big Question Unwillingness to call China an ‘enemy’ apparently scuppered espionage trial
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoff
Speed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsion
Speed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot
-
Oregon sues to stop Trump military deployment
Speed Read The president wants to send the National Guard into Portland