The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

John Bolton spent a significant portion of his 453 days serving as President Trump's national security advisor in the room where it occurred, and the statistics speak for themselves.

As a result, a top-level official's White House memoir is the most extensive and substantive account of the Trump Administration to far. John Bolton, who has virtually daily access to the President, has created an accurate portrayal of his days spent in and around the Oval Office. Bolton was shocked to see a President who cared exclusively about winning reelection, even at the expense of jeopardizing or undermining the country. "I find it difficult to pinpoint any noteworthy Trump choice made throughout my leadership that wasn't motivated by re-election considerations," he says. In fact, he contends that the House engaged in impeachment malpractice by limiting the scope of their investigation to Ukraine when Trump had transgressions similar to those in Ukraine throughout his entire foreign policy agenda. Bolton details these transgressions in detail, as well as attempts by him and other Administration officials to raise concerns about them.

He portrays a President who was hooked to instability, who rejected his allies and welcomed his enemies, and who harbored strong misgivings about his own administration. All of this, according to Bolton, contributed to Trump's strange journey toward impeachment. "The distinctions between this administration and the ones I held before were astounding," writes Bolton, who held positions under Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43. He found a President who equated foreign policy to finishing a real estate deal, believing it to be all about showmanship, personal connections, and furthering one's own interests. As a result, the US was left in a more vulnerable position in the cases of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea and was deprived of the chance to address its growing threats.

As Bolton is courted by Trump and others for the National Security position, his narrative begins with his arduous journey to the West Wing. The crisis never stops after he lands; he must deal with Syria's chemical strike on the city of Douma. Try something else, he writes in the first few pages, if you don't like chaos, uncertainty, and risk—while also being inundated with information, faced with decisions to make, and overburdened with indescribable domestic and international personality and ego conflicts.

From the turmoil in Venezuela to the unpredictable and cunning actions of Kim Jong Un in North Korea, to the showdowns at the G7 summits, to Iran's calculated warmongering, to the absurd plan to bring the Taliban to Camp David, and to the appeasement of an authoritarian China that ultimately exposed the world to its deadly lies, there is no shortage of turmoil, conflicts, and egos. However, this seasoned public servant also has a keen sense of the Washington insider game, and his account of how he observed it performed is rife with irony and wit.