• It underscores Trump's pattern of adjusting facts to fit his narrative, a week after the "Sharpie" controversy involving the path of Hurricane Dorian.
• It also serves to warn Bolton's successor — whom Trump says he'll name next week — what they're signing up for.

Here's how Tuesday's events played out:

• At around 11:30 a.m., Bolton submitted a resignation letter to the president dated Sept. 10, and hand-delivered copies to others including the offices of Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, the person said.
• At 11:58 a.m., Trump tweeted that he had informed Bolton the night before that "his services are no longer needed at the White House."
• A Bolton tweet countered that, saying that he had offered to resign Monday night and Trump said, "Let's talk about it tomorrow."
• That nighttime reference was an oversight that does not reflect the actual timeline, the source said.

What's next:

• Trump is seeking input from Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Republican lawmakers and others on who should replace Bolton, two people familiar with the deliberations tell Axios.
• Contenders mentioned most often by people close to the White House include Maj. Gen. Ricky Waddell, a former Trump deputy national security adviser and assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea. CNN reported last month that he could be tapped as ambassador to Russia.  
• Trump also has spoken favorably of the State Department's special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, and Pence's national security adviser Keith Kellogg, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox.

For now, Trump's deputy national security adviser Charlie Kupperman is serving as acting national security adviser.

• White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham tells Axios that there are currently no frontrunners on who will replace Bolton. She adds that "of course" the president is consulting others on a big decision like this.

The backstory: Bolton's end at the White House follows his resistance to peace talks with Afghanistan that included Trump's desire to host the Taliban at Camp David. Even though Trump scrapped the secret plan after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, he fumed over reports about internal resistance to the idea.

• Trump made no mention of the one-on-one meeting with Bolton, which was not on his public schedule, when he emerged on the South Lawn at 2:36 p.m. on Monday and held court for 25 minutes with reporters before flying to a rally in North Carolina.
• Asked then if his advisers had talked him out of meeting with the Taliban at Camp David, Trump said, "I took my own advice."
• He likes the idea of meeting with bad people, he said, but it wasn't possible after the Taliban claimed credit for killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. "It was my idea," he said of the meeting plan that Bolton opposed, "and it was my idea to terminate it."

The bottom line: Bolton is "the dog who caught the car," said one person close to the administration. He always wanted the job, but his differing views on North Korea, Syria military engagement and his strong will increasingly angered Trump.

Why it matters: Based on numerous conversations with Trump administration officials over the last few weeks, it is clear that many of the president's top advisers view China first and foremost as a national security threat rather than as an economic partner.

• This is a new normal. And it's poised to affect huge parts of American life, from the cost of many consumer goods — likely to go up under a punishing new round of tariffs — to the nature of this country's relationship with the government of Taiwan.
• Trump himself still views China primarily through an economic prism. But the angrier he gets with Beijing, the more receptive he is to his advisers' hawkish stances toward China that go well beyond trade.
• The big open question remains whether Trump's anger with China — especially its flooding of the U.S. with deadly fentanyl and its backtracking on promises to make huge agricultural purchases — will ever grow to such a point that he wants to move in a tougher direction on national security and human rights. If he gets to that point, his advisers will have plenty of hawkish policy ideas waiting for his green light.

Behind the scenes: A New York Times op-ed by Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong and Alex Chow — titled "The People of Hong Kong Will Not Be Cowed by China" — has been circulating inside the administration. And U.S. officials have been reviewing reports of Chinese authorities snatching protesters off the streets.

• Senior administration officials have also contemplated selling another tranche of advanced weaponry to Taiwan, beyond the recent F-16 fighter jet sale, according to 3 sources briefed on the sensitive internal conversations. A senior administration official cautioned that these talks may go nowhere and that Trump would probably hesitate to expand his fight with China to include Taiwan.
• Trump administration officials have also discussed terminating the State Department's self-imposed restrictions on contact with Taiwanese officials. A policy under discussion would let Taiwanese officials attend meetings at State Department headquarters and send direct letters to State.
• A State Department official responded to this reporting: "The Department of State regularly reviews our activities with Taiwan, within the scope of our unofficial relationship. As of this time, no decisions to change current practices have been made."
• If the State Department made such a change, it would stick in China's craw and lessen the chances of a trade deal. But it wouldn't be the first departure from the status quo under this administration. Trump enraged Beijing and broke decades of protocol a few weeks after he was elected by taking a phone call from Taiwan's leader.

The big picture: As the Hong Kong situation deteriorates, the Trump administration is entering the tensest stage of its economic standoff with China. The situation is further complicated by China's militarization of the South China Sea and dominant role in propping up North Korea's rogue regime.

• Trump's latest round of China tariffs kick in today, imposing a new 15% tariff on billions worth of consumer products.

Between the lines: Trump's advisers say he was genuinely infuriated that, in his view, the Chinese recently reneged on 2 key promises: to buy huge amounts of agricultural goods from American farmers and to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl into the U.S. So any progress toward getting the talks back on track would likely have to start with the Chinese making a new offer on agriculture purchases and cracking down on drug trafficking.

• About a week and a half ago, Chinese and U.S. officials at USTR and Treasury had a phone call about agricultural purchases, per a U.S. administration official. Another source briefed on these lower level discussions said the Chinese are frustrated that Trump is not giving them enough credit for the agricultural goods they bought earlier this year.
• Sources briefed on the talks say the the two sides still aren't wrestling with the thorniest trade issues that caused the impasse in the first place. The most optimistic scenario for those favoring a deal is that the two sides can generate enough goodwill in the next couple of weeks that a Chinese delegation, led by trade negotiator Liu He, could visit Washington at the end of September. Senior administration officials have discussed such a trip, but nothing is locked in.

The bottom line: During the 2.5 years of his presidency, Trump has fundamentally changed how the world's top two economies relate to each other. And his advisers think there's no going back.

• But a source close to Westerhout says she has "no intention" of writing a book about her time working for the president. The source added that Westerhout had "very positive" experiences with President Trump and would have nothing negative to say.

Context: Westerhout resigned last week after Trump learned she'd shared intimate details about him and his family during off-the-record drinks with reporters.

• Trump described Westerhout as a "very good person" on Saturday, but in the same tweet sent a warning shot, saying that she has a "fully enforceable confidentiality agreement" and that he is "currently suing various people for violating their confidentiality agreements."
• Urbahn says the lawyers his agency works with are confident that Trump's nondisclosure agreements are unenforceable for government service. The former White House employees' First Amendment rights override these agreements, he says.

The big picture: Latimer and Urbahn say that if Westerhout is willing to endure the legal, media and presidential onslaught that would come as a result of turning on her former boss, then she could get the biggest literary payday so far in the Trump era.

• "This is someone who had total access, saw everything, which Trump obviously knows," says Latimer. "If she was willing to say 'here's everything I saw and I'm not trying to protect anybody,' then she could have a huge advance."

The bottom line: Urbahn says if Westerhout's anecdotes of her time working for the president at intimate quarters are "sufficiently shocking" she could get an advance of $5 million or more. "It doesn't get much higher. I mean that would be a major score," he said. "But everything has to align."

• "And I still think there would be hesitation on the part of both editors and the reading public to buy a book that purely dished," Urbahn adds. "There has to be an argument or a higher calling for why you're doing this. Otherwise it would come across as transactional. ... It's a tricky path. It has to be revelations plus here's why the American people need to know this."

The other side: Former colleagues of Westerhout say they don't expect she'll write a tell-all book. And Latimer and Urbahn say their experience with Trump White House officials makes them think she won't do it, either.

• Latimer and Urbahn say they've spoken to numerous current and former Trump administration officials about writing books. And "most people, so far, end up taking the safer course, which is, 'Eh, I don't want to be tweeted about every day, with people attacking me and I have to move out of my house'," Latimer says.
• "What the administration tends to do is offer people cushy jobs somewhere to keep people quiet, so she's got to weigh all those things," Latimer adds.

Sean Spicer, who served as President Trump's press secretary, left the White House in 2017 and met with publishers who were eager to pay him big bucks for a tell-all. Spicer ultimately took a more modest advance than he could have gotten because he wrote a positive book about the president in which he did not reveal any confidential information from his time in the White House.

• "Anyone leaving this administration that's interested in writing a book has a choice to make," Spicer says. "Number one: Go for the big bucks, tell all, but then worry about whether anyone in the future will continue to trust you. Two is to share your story but maintain a level of loyalty, integrity and trustworthiness."

So who would be these literary agents' No. 1 pick among former Trump administration officials? Latimer and Urbahn agree that if former Defense Secretary James Mattis was willing to offer his candid assessment of Trump as commander in chief — rather than write a leadership book that avoids discussing Trump — then he'd be by far their top choice.

• But Urbahn says it's getting "too late" even for Mattis to get a staggering advance as any such book would need to be released before the 2020 election. "The window is small and closing," he says.