US secretary of states says these kinds of actions echoed similarly heavy-handed behaviour over Hong Kong. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
"John Bolton is spreading a number of lies, fully-spun half-truths and outright falsehoods," Pompeo said in a statement.
"It is both sad and dangerous that John Bolton's final public role is that of a traitor who damaged America by violating his sacred trust with its people."
"To our friends around the world, you know that President Trump's America is a force for good in the world."
It is both sad and dangerous that John Bolton’s final public role is that of a traitor who damaged America by violating his sacred trust with its people. To our friends around the world: you know that President @realDonaldTrump's America is a force for good in the world.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) June 19, 2020
Pompeo said he had not yet read the book, "The Room Where It Happened," which the Trump administration is trying to block from publication.
But according to excerpts published by major newspapers, Bolton said that Pompeo – one of the rare aides never to clash publicly with Trump – disparaged him in private.
According to The New York Times, Bolton writes that he received a note from Pompeo during Trump's historic first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, saying of the president, "He is so full of shit."
Pompeo travelled four times to North Korea in 2018 to jumpstart diplomacy for Trump, who has hailed his own efforts as worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
But Bolton wrote that Pompeo, a month after the Singapore summit in June 2018, dismissed Trump's North Korea diplomacy, saying it had "zero probability of success," according to the Times report.
Bolton is well-known for his hawkish views on North Korea and left in September shortly after Trump, accompanied by Pompeo, again met Kim on the Demilitarized Zone in Korea.
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