Trump said invading Venezuela would be ‘cool’ and called Guaidó a ‘kid’ in new Bolton book

A new book by President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser says the president waffled on his decision to recognize Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader over Nicolás Maduro within hours after the initial announcement went public in January 2019.

The forthcoming book by John Bolton, a high-ranking aide in multiple Republican presidencies whose hawkish foreign policy views in Latin America align with South Florida Republicans, presents the president as inconsistent on Venezuela policy in excerpts released Wednesday.

At one point, Trump said invading Venezuela would be “cool” and that the South American nation was “really part of the United States,” according to Bolton’s account.

But at other times, the book says, the president deviated from his administration’s hardline rhetoric against Maduro in private.

According to Bolton, within 30 hours of the Trump administration’s public announcement backing Guaidó over Maduro, Trump referred to Guaidó as a “kid” compared to Maduro, who he described as “tough.”

“You couldn’t make this up,” Bolton writes.

Bolton also recounted that in a May 2019 phone call with Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin compared Guaidó to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Bolton called the comparison a “brilliant display of Soviet style propaganda” to shore up support for Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro by drawing parallels between Trump’s 2016 opponent and Venezuela’s National Assembly leader.

Putin’s claims, Bolton writes, “largely persuaded Trump.”

The Venezuela anecdotes were included in write-ups of Bolton’s forthcoming book by the Washington Post.

Also in the book, according to advance copies reviewed by the Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Bolton says Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win the 2020 U.S. election.

The White House has dismissed Bolton’s claims and is suing Bolton in an attempt to prevent the book’s release, which is scheduled for June 23.

“I would just think that it’s very important to the nation’s security, not even the president himself, but for the presidency itself and the nation’s security to make sure the review processes have been completed,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said to reporters on Wednesday. “It’s kind of remarkable to have a book be published while people are still in office.”

Bolton was fired by Trump in September 2019 through the president’s Twitter account. “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning,” Trump tweeted.

Multiple Trump staffers have written books on the Trump presidency after leaving the White House. Democrats have criticized Bolton’s decision to publish a book instead of offering information to Congress that could have bolstered their case for Trump’s impeachment.

Bolton was a key voice on Venezuela policy during his White House tenure, dubbing Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua the “troika of tyranny” during a 2018 speech at the Freedom Tower in Miami. His hardline messaging on Latin America and a parade of sanctions against the Maduro regime buoyed the hopes of Miami Republicans who predicted that the Trump administration’s actions would lead to Maduro’s downfall.

A year and a half after the Trump administration recognized Guaidó, Maduro⁠ — who counts Russia, Cuba and Iran as allies ⁠— remains in power.

This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 5:05 PM.