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North Korea's 'Brooklyn Bridge' sale

Bolton's eyewitness account of Trump's North Korea diplomacy, including his summit with the country, paints a mixed portrait -- at times offering an unsparing critique of the president's political motivations, while sometimes crediting his distrust of dictator Kim Jong Un.

On May 25, 2019, a reporter asked Bolton if North Korea's then-recent short-range missile launches violated Security Council resolutions, putting him in an "awkward position," he writes.

Bolton "knew full well they did, having helped write the first two, Resolutions 1695 and 1718, when I was US Ambassador to the UN," the book states, adding that he "wasn't about to ignore" those resolutions. At the same time, "it was entirely possible for the launches to violate the resolutions without violating Kim's pledge to Trump, which involved only ICBM launches. It was equally true that Trump looked foolish for not understanding that Kim had, in effect, sold him the Brooklyn Bridge with that pledge, but we were never able to shake Trump's faith he had scored a coup in getting it."

At the press conference, Bolton responded that there was "no doubt" of a violation: "The UN resolution prohibits the launch of any ballistic missiles."

Trump then fired off a tweet that rankled Bolton: "North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me. I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse. Perhaps that's sending me a signal?"

And, during Trump's meeting with Kim Jong Un, Bolton writes, Pompeo "passed me his note pad, on which he had written, 'he is so full of s--t.' I agreed. Kim promised there would be no further nuclear tests, and that their nuclear program would be dismantled in an irreversible manner."

Fox News had confirmed that Bolton was referring to Trump as the person who was "so full of s--t."

However, the president did occasionally have flashes of insight, according to Bolton.

"When Pompeo told Trump that North Korea wanted 'security guarantees' before denuclearization, Trump responded, 'This 'trust building' is horsesh--,' the smartest thing on Pyongyang he had said in months," the book says, noting that Pompeo added, "'It's all an effort to weaken the sanctions, a standard delaying tactic,' which was correct."

The memoir continues: "'This is an exercise in publicity,'" said Trump, which is how he saw the entire summit. Kelly said to me while Trump did a meet-and-greet with the Singapore US embassy staff, 'the psychology here is that Trump wants to walk out in order to preempt Kim Jong Un.' I agreed, and became somewhat hopeful we could avoid major concessions. After the meet-and-greet, Trump told [Sarah] Sanders, Kelly, and me he was prepared to sign a substance-free communique, have his press conference to declare victory, and then get out of town."

According to the book, Trump said the summit would be a "success no matter what," adding, "We just need to put on more sanctions, including on China for opening up the border. Kim is full of sh--, we have three hundred more sanctions we can impose on Friday."

Bolton writes that this development "threw logistics back into disarray (not that they had been in array since we left Canada), but Kelly and I said we'd get back to him with options later that day."

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Posted by Erin Burnett to Trang Ánh Nam at June 18, 2020 at 7:01 PM