Trump blasts Bolton over memoir

Washington

US President Donald Trump blasted his former national security adviser John Bolton over the foreign policy hawk's memoir.

"Bolton's book, which is getting terrible reviews, is a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad," Trump tweeted, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction."

Additionally, the president claimed "Bolton's dumbest of all statements set us back very badly" with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, "even now."

Bolton plans to release his memoir, "The Room Where It Happened," on June 23, which has been delayed for months as a result of a prepublication review process.

Simon & Schuster, the book's publisher, has called the move "a frivolous, politically motivated exercise in futility."

"Hundreds of thousands of copies of the book have already been distributed around the country and the world," it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Bolton, who served as Trump's third national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019, was ousted over disagreements with the president on a range of issues.