Trump joked that he hoped Covid would ‘take out’ John Bolton

‘Hopefully Covid takes out John,’ Mr Trump reportedly joked at a White House meeting in 2020

While he was still president, Donald Trump reportedly joked that he hoped Covid-19 would “take out” his estranged former advisor, John Bolton.

The chilling moment is described in Nightmare Scenario, a new book by Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta that chronicles the Trump administration’s bungled response to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the book, Mr Trump was holding a meeting in 2020 when his economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, stifled a cough. A hush came over the room. This was months before any Covid vaccines were available, and the virus was still raging unchecked across the country – all while Mr Trump insisted his aides not wear masks.

The president tried to laugh off the moment.

“Larry will never get Covid,” he told the group. “He will defeat it with his optimism.”

Then he turned his thoughts to his former national security advisor, Mr Bolton.

“Hopefully Covid takes out John,” he said.

Sources told Ms Abutaleb and Mr Paletta that Mr Trump seemed totally serious.

By this time, there was no love lost between the two men. Mr Bolton had served in the Trump administration from 2018 to 2019, before having a bitter falling out with his boss over foreign policy disagreements. In September 2019, Mr Trump fired him – or Mr Bolton quit. The two men argued even over that.

This set off a months-long feud, with Mr Trump sniping at Mr Bolton on Twitter and Mr Bolton returning fire in a sensational tell-all memoir, The Room Where It Happened.

The book accused Mr Trump of privately wishing for the execution of journalists, repeatedly cozying up to dictators, fostering a toxic work environment at the White House, and demanding that Ukraine investigate Hunter Biden in exchange for US military aid – the accusation behind Mr Trump’s first impeachment.

Mr Trump responded through his Justice Department, first by seeking to block the book’s publication, and then, when that failed, by suing to seize all its profits.

All the while, the former president continued to fire off angry tweets.

“Washed up Creepster John Bolton is a lowlife who should be in jail, money seized, for disseminating, for profit, highly Classified information,” the former president tweeted in June 2020, after the book was published.

After Nightmare Scenario revealed Mr Trump’s joke about Covid killing Mr Bolton, the former aide offered Axios a pithy response.

“Fooled me,” Mr Bolton said. “I thought he was relying on his lawyers.”