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Trump and Bolton in 2019. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
President Trump sure is good at selling books — even when they attack him.
The state of play: The president said this week that "a lot of people are upset" that John Bolton, his former national security adviser, had written the 592-page book — "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," out Tuesday.
- "I will consider every conversation with me, as president, highly classified," he said.
- "So that would mean that if he wrote a book and if ... the book gets out, he's broken the law. And I would think that he would have criminal problems."
Why it matters: For an author and publisher, that's gold.
- Then yesterday, the Justice Department sued to block publication of the book, which has already been shipped.
- Trump's opposition to publication vastly increases the book's value, and reader interest around the world.
Sure enough, a week before publication, Bolton's book hit #1 on Amazon's bestsellers list.
What's next: Bolton plans a ton of interviews.
- And we're told that Attorney General William Barr has a starring role in the book.
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