Sarah Huckabee Sanders calls Bolton 'drunk on power' in 1st excerpt from her book
Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is set to release a memoir of her time in the White House this fall — yet another election year book from former Trump administration officials. And with her first excerpt from Speaking for Myself released Monday to Axios, Sanders made it clear she wouldn't be taking the same approach as former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
In the brief excerpt, Sanders shares that Bolton usually traveled separately from the rest of President Trump's team, including when Trump visited London last year. Sanders, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and several other officials all took a bus together to the U.S. ambassador's residence in London, but Bolton opted for a separate motorcade.
"While en route, U.K. police directed us to pull to the side of the road because someone was coming through...we looked over to see who it was and sure enough here came Bolton and his motorcade," Sanders described. "The discussion on the bus quickly moved from casual chit chat to how arrogant and selfish Bolton could be, not just in this moment but on a regular basis." And when they all arrived at their destination, the "typically laid-back" former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney "confronted Bolton and unleashed a full Irish explosion on him," calling the adviser a "'f—— self-righteous, self-centered son of a b——,'" Sanders continues. It was all indicative of how "Bolton was a classic case of a senior White House official drunk on power, who had forgotten that nobody elected him to anything," Sanders finished.
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.
A longtime senior adviser to Bolton told Axios that all travel was "handled by the Secret Service." Bolton's book made a bevvy of misconduct allegations against Trump and his team, including claims that Trump called for journalists to be "executed" and encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to build concentration camps to hold the Uighur Muslim minority.
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.
-
The most anticipated movies of 2026The Week Recommends If the trailers are anything to go by, film buffs are in for a treat
-
The biggest viral moments of 2025In the Spotlight From the Coldplay concert kiss cam to a celebrity space mission, these are some of the craziest, and most unexpected, things to happen this year
-
Environment breakthroughs of 2025In Depth Progress was made this year on carbon dioxide tracking, food waste upcycling, sodium batteries, microplastic monitoring and green concrete
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
