John Bolton isn’t the only Republican making life difficult for Trump these days

The ex-national security adviser’s controversial book is just one part of a larger trend emerging among dissatisfied members of the president’s own party, says Holly Baxter

The hawkish Bolton is suddenly a Democratic hero (Getty)

This week, intrigue surrounding John Bolton’s soon-to-be-released book about his time in the Trump administration reached fever pitch. The Room Where it Happened kicked off controversy long before it hit the shelves – and it’s been a long time since it should have hit the shelves as well, considering the book’s original release date was early in the year and it was delayed while investigators pored over it during the impeachment investigation.

Its contents has now been made available to a select few media outlets, including The Independent, where you can read our Washington DC bureau chief’s breakdown of the most explosive moments on our politics pages. DC-based writer Andrew Feinberg has also spent the week speaking to the former national security adviser’s old contacts round Capitol Hill and written up their views on the controversy for Voices.

Trump’s displeasure with the book is undoubtedly what has made everyone want to read it. The president has attempted to take legal action to prevent publishers Simon & Schuster from releasing The Room Where it Happened next week, but a lawyer I spoke to while fact-checking an opinion piece this week told me he has no realistic chance of prevailing. “It’s an open-and-shut First Amendment case,” she told me, referring to the constitutional law which gives all Americans unrestricted freedom of speech.

Trump likely knows this, which is why he has claimed that the book discusses classified information important to the security of the country; my other Washington contacts tell me this is highly unlikely, as Bolton is a stickler for the rules and would baulk at any such transgression.

It’s easy to forget that John Bolton was once a liberal’s worst nightmare. Hawkish, conservative and trigger-happy, he made a lot of progressive people nervous when he first joined Trump’s administration. He reportedly discusses in his book his anger when Trump decided not to go ahead with an attack that would have left 150 people dead in Iran, and you know you’re in a strange place when the most reasonable-sounding person on the page is the current president of the United States.

But Bolton has emerged an unlikely Democratic hero after his departure from the administration and subsequent criticism of what went on within. Like once-reviled Republican senator Mitt Romney – anti-abortion, opposed to gay marriage – who surprised us all by marching alongside Black Lives Matter protesters a couple of weeks ago, protective mask looped round his ears, the fact that Bolton at least has demonstrated some decent principles marks him out in these unfailingly strange times.

As we get closer to the election in November, it seems more and more Republicans are listening to their current and former colleagues and distancing themselves from Trump. It seemed inevitable that the president would get a second term before coronavirus hit, when the economy was booming, and before he responded to protests demanding policing reform by clearing activists from a DC church with tear gas for a photo op.

With a tanking economy, a vast majority of Americans agreeing that the police have systemic issues, a poor record on race relations and a catalogue of bizarre speeches to his name during the pandemic (claims about taking hydroxychloroquine, for instance, and suggestions that UV light or bleach might cure the illness), Trump has deconstructed his own campaign over the past three months. A group of conservative Republicans who call themselves The Lincoln Project have even been blasting out TV commercials across the country urging lifelong Republican voters to back Joe Biden in an effort to turf Trump out the White House.

Will Bolton’s book be the final nail in the coffin for Trump’s re-election? I doubt it will be explosive enough for that. Nevertheless, it adds to a litany of complaints from Republican colleagues that Trump can scarce afford to ignore. When it was just Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of the so-called “squad” demanding change from the top – and when Bernie Sanders was still a favourite for the nomination – things were easy for the blustering, bombastic president who could rail about “socialism” at a rally and be done with it. But now the going’s got tough at just the wrong time, it seems he can’t help but steer himself further and further into a ditch he might not be able to get out of; especially if none of his fellow senators are willing to lend him a hand up.

Yours,

Holly Baxter

US opinion editor