Bolton Claims Trump Pleaded With China for Re-Election HelpDonald Trump pleaded with China's leader Xi Jinping for help to win re-election in 2020, the U.S. president's former aide John Bolton writes in an explosive new book, according to excerpts published Wednesday. Trump met with Xi at a summit last June when he "stunningly turned the conversation to the US presidential election, alluding to China's economic capability to affect the ongoing campaigns, pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win," former national security adviser Bolton claims in his upcoming tell-all. In excerpts published by The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Bolton writes that Trump stressed the importance of America's farmers and how "increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat" could impact the electoral outcome in the United States.