Donald Trump reportedly joked about COVID-19 killing his former National Security Adviser John Bolton, according an excerpt of a new book obtained by Axios.
According to the book, Nightmare Scenario, by Washington Post journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, Trump made the comments during a meeting at the White House last year when COVID was spreading, unchecked across the country.
At one meeting in 2020, the book says, Larry Kudlow, Trump’s national economic council director, stifled a cough as people in the room froze.
“Trump had waved his hands in front of his face, as if to jokingly ward off any flying virus particles, and then cracked a smile. ‘I was just kidding,’ he’d said. ‘Larry will never get Covid. He will defeat it with his optimism,’” the book says, adding that Trump then said: “‘John Bolton … Hopefully Covid takes out John.’”
Sources told the authors that Trump seemed totally serious.
When reached for comment by Axios, Bolton said: “Fooled me — I thought he was relying on his lawyers.”
Bolton quit or was fired– depending on who you ask– in 2019 after a disagreement with Trump over his foreign policy agenda.
