On Wednesday, writing for The Washington Post's "Plum Line," Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman broke down how the allegations in ex-National Security Adviser John Bolton's book are devastating for President Donald Trump's main reelection message.
"In addition to revealing new dimensions of corruption that are remarkable — even for Trump — the book also deals a huge blow to one of Trump’s leading arguments for reelection: the idea that opponent Joe Biden is soft on China, while Trump is bristling with toughness toward that country," they wrote. "The Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have obtained Bolton’s book. It reveals that Trump directly asked President Xi Jinping to help him win reelection, telling Xi that if China increased agricultural imports from the United States, it would aid his electoral prospects."
Bolton alleged that not only did Trump ask Xi to import more from states he won, but also that Trump tried to intervene in a criminal case against a Chinese company to curry favor with Xi, and told Xi he was fine with China's Muslim concentration camps.
"If reality mattered, this would make it extremely hard for Trump to now argue that he’s tough on China and that Biden is soft," they wrote. "Trump has been making this claim in absurdly lurid ads that laughably rip Biden’s words out of context."
"One irony here is that, as Bloomberg News recently reported, Chinese leaders have concluded that however much they might dislike the trade war, having Trump remain would undermine the Western alliance and weaken the United States, thus boosting China’s global ambitions," they continued.
"All these new details reinforce the broader pattern in which Trump sees government as nothing more than a tool to advance his own interests, and they add specificity in China’s case," they concluded. "That should make it a whole lot harder for Trump to get away with claiming to the tough-on-China candidate. Which is one of his central reelection arguments."
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