I pre-ordered “The Room Where It Happened” by former National Security Advisor John Bolton after learning how hard the Trump administration was working to block its publication.  If you are a publisher and you want me to buy a book, the best way is to announce politicians want to block it.  Bolton has never been my cup of tea.  I remember him as UN Ambassador advocating the countries of the world bow down the US as the Master Power.  The first time I went to order, I called it off because I saw he had written another book “How Barack Obama is Endangering our Nation Sovereignty: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians and Misguided Policies That (Encounter Broadsides)”.  That title could use an editor.  The reality is that, without a new form of energy, global warming due to human activity will wipe out humanity.  The only question left is whether it will exterminate all life on the planet in the process.  The White House threw another hissy fit as the book neared publication so I ordered it a week before release.

“The Room Where it Happened” is a tough slog as there is lots of detail on political maneuvering followed by Bolton’s excitement over horrible choices by the Trump administration.  John is a guy who thinks any international agreement hurts the US.  Eventually I had to switch it from my nighttime to bathroom reading.  Maybe its a testament to good health, but I read almost three other books at night before finishing this one.  There were some takeaways:

1. Trump wanted to be seen negotiating “deals” but cared little about whether they were in our best interests.

2. Trump thought international leaders were constantly trying to reach him but other people were blocking the calls.

3. Trump thought that even in small organizations like the National Security Council there were “deep state” actors working against him.

4. After months of careful planning meetings, Trumps mind could be changed by a single interaction, usually someone outside the chain of command.

There is a lot of detail about the proposed and actual meetings with Kim Jong un, about attempts invite the Taliban to Camp David without an agenda, and some on Ukraine.  Mr Bolton seems to have little respect for Rudy Giuliani, often working to keep “Giuliani conspiracy theories’ out of official communications.  Bolton wanted to get military aid to Ukraine, Trump wanted NATO to pay for it [not how the world works], and Rudy wanted to make aid conditional.  Bolton opposed the impeachment that came out of this process, but did not approve of how it went down.