Former national security adviser John Bolton didn't understand the joke President Donald Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping that the U.S. Constitution should allow him to serve more than two terms, another former adviser told the Washington Examiner.
In an excerpt from a forthcoming book, "The Room Where It Happened," Bolton accuses Trump of saying during a meeting in 2018, "people were saying that the two-term constitutional limit on presidents should be repealed for [Trump]," to Chinese President Xi Jinping saying "he wanted to work with Trump for six more years."
But Casey Mulligan, who was Trump's chief economist in the Council of Economic Advisers while Bolton ran the National Security Council, said the exchange was meant as a joke.
"Trump jokingly said, 'My opponents say I have found a way to change the Constitution and serve more than two terms,'" Mulligan said.
Mulligan acknowledged he wasn't in the room during Trump's meeting with Xi, but he said the comment resembles well-known banter that the president often repeats. He also said Bolton is aware of this banter.
"Bolton should have said this was a joke. Trump said this riff frequently, and Bolton should have given that full context," he told the Washington Examiner.
"I was brought up on the English language, I don’t know what language he was raised on," said Mulligan.
Mulligan has his own Trump tell-all book called "You’re Hired!: Untold Successes and Failures of a Populist President," which he said is an evenhanded portrayal of his tour at the White House from July 2018 to June 2019.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.