By Zachary Cohen, Jeremy Herb and Jennifer Hansler, CNN
Updated 4:57 PM ET, Wed June 17, 2020
Washington (CNN)Former national security adviser John Bolton has leveled a stunning accusation against his former boss, claiming in his new book that President Donald Trump personally asked his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to help him win the 2020 US presidential election, according to an excerpt published by the Wall Street Journal Wednesday.
One notable interaction described by Bolton was a meeting between the two leaders at the G-20 Summit in Osaka last June, where the US President “stunningly” turned the conversation to the upcoming 2020 election.
The former national security adviser said Trump “stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome,” adding that he “would print Trump’s exact words, but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.”
Bolton said the conversation turned back to the trade deal, and Trump “proposed that for the remaining $350 billion of trade imbalances (by Trump’s arithmetic), the US would not impose tariffs, but he again returned to importuning Xi to buy as many American farm products as China could.”
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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/politics/bolton-book-trump/index.html