By Brian Stelter, CNN Business
Updated 4:46 AM ET, Tue June 16, 2020
President Trump has threatened authors and publishers before — but this time the stakes are higher, with John Bolton about to release a damning account of his time inside the Trump White House, and Trump determined to stop him.
Trump made several misstatements on Monday that showed just how angry he is about “The Room Where It Happened,” which comes out in one week. “If he wrote a book, and the book gets out, he’s broken the law,” Trump claimed. “I would think he would have criminal problems. I hope so.”
From a First Amendment perspective, it’ll be a much bigger problem if the book doesn’t get out. American politicians don’t get to veto unflattering tomes — everyone knows that. But for Trump, the First Amendment is always about putting his own interests “first.” So he may still try to block the book’s release.
Trump was noncommittal when asked about the possibility of a lawsuit — he said “they’re in court, or they’ll soon be in court” over the book. This is an “I’ll believe it when I see it” situation, given Team Trump’s history of threatening to sue but not following through.
Trump’s shocking statements
With my notes in parentheses:
“Somebody said he went out and wrote a book.” (The book was announced to the world months ago and is already a best-seller based on pre-order sales.) “If he wrote a book” (he did) “I can’t imagine that he can” (he did) “because that’s highly classified information.” (That’s in dispute — see below.) “Even conversations with me, they’re highly classified… “I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified.” (What?!)
Continued
Jeff in Charlotte
Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/16/media/john-bolton-donald-trump-reliable-sources/index.html