President Donald Trump reportedly blamed French President Emmanuel Macron for allegedly leaking their private conversations, according to former National Security Adviser John Bolton. Bolton made the claims in his upcoming book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir. The book’s scheduled release date is June 23.
As reported by Business Insider , Bolton claimed that Trump said Macron was “always leaking” their private conversations during the 2017 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit. However, the French president disputed the allegations, “smiling broadly” in the process.
The frosty exchange is a far cry from the close relationship the two politicians once shared. In fact, the two men were even described to have developed a “bromance” (per CNN ). However, disputes over NATO spending, climate change, and policies regarding the Islamic State quickly placed a strain on their relationship.
Macron was not the only European official to have reportedly earned Trump’s ire. Another was European Union Chief Jean-Claude Juncker. Bolton claimed that Trump called Juncker a “vicious man who hated the United States desperately.”
Other details continue to paint a picture of the U.S. president’s strained relationship with many European countries. For example, Trump also often sparred with German leader Angela Merkel, particularly over NATO spending.
Though all member countries agreed to spend at least two percent of their GDPs on defense, Germany has not hit the target in years, and has announced that it will not reach the minimum until 2031.
“Trump stressed again that he wanted to decrease rather than increase U.S. payments to the same level as Germany’s,” Bolton reportedly wrote.
Another move that added tensions to the already fraught relationship was Trump’s decision to decrease its troop presence in Germany.
“We expect our leading ally to act as a model, with orientation and balance — not maximum pressure. You don’t treat partners like this,” said Johann Wadephul, a senior figure in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, in response to the decision.
Last but not least, teutonic and European Union officials were allegedly angered after Trump excluded them from peace talks between Serbia and Kosovo.
This not the first report from Bolton’s book to grab headlines — especially after a PDF of the work was allegedly leaked online. As was previously reported by The Inquisitr , other allegations include the fact that Trump reportedly “pleaded” with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 presidential election.
Meanwhile, critics of Bolton have emphasized that though the former White House official appears to be happy to share his experiences in a book, he nevertheless refused to testify under oath before Congress.