Former national security adviser John Bolton was unpopular in the Trump administration even before the leaks from his book, “The Room Where it Happened," according to former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Axios reported on Monday.
"Bolton was a classic case of a senior White House official drunk on power, who had forgotten that nobody elected him to anything," Sanders wrote in her book, “Speaking for Myself,” due out in the fall and to which Axios received a first look.
Bolton often “acted like he was the president, pushing an agenda contrary to President Trump's."
Speaking of a state trip to London last fall as indicative of Bolton’s behavior on a regular basis, Sanders wrote that "Bolton apparently felt too important to travel with the rest of us. As we were ready to depart for the Winfield House [the U.S. ambassador's residence in London], "we loaded onto a small black bus. We waited and watched as Bolton sped by and left us in the dust. The discussion on the bus quickly moved ... to how arrogant and selfish Bolton could be, not just in this moment but on a regular basis."
Sanders continued that "When we finally arrived at the Winfield House, [chief of staff] Mick Mulvaney, typically laid-back and not one to get caught up in titles or seniority, confronted Bolton and unleashed a full Irish explosion on him,” adding "That epithet ... was the culmination of months of Bolton thinking he was more important and could play by a different set of rules than the rest of the team. ... Bolton backed down and stormed off."
In response, Bolton's longtime senior adviser Sarah Tinsley told Axios that “All logistical arrangements for travel of this sort were handled by the Secret Service, without any input from Ambassador Bolton.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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