Trump attacks ex-aide

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s presidency was in turmoil Thursday after top ex-aide John Bolton declared him unfit for office, raising the stakes on a controversial re-election rally meant to boost his flailing campaign.

Trump’s once supremely self-confident march toward a second term was already in a hole due to criticism over his responses to the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide anti-racism protests.

He took another body blow Thursday when the Supreme Court ruled against his administration’s bid to remove protections for hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants classified as "Dreamers." In an extraordinary outburst on Twitter, Trump called decisions by the top court "shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans."

Now, the outsider president who had never even contested an election before his shock win in 2016, also faces a blistering insider attack from his former national security aide. "I don’t think he’s fit for office. I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job," Bolton told ABC News to promote his book, "The Room Where it Happened."

The book -- which the White House is trying desperately to get stopped by court order -- alleges that Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for re-election help, obstructed justice, and was no match for Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle," Bolton told ABC.

Trump, who has assiduously built his image as a president who is tough on China, lashed back at Bolton, calling him a "sick puppy" and dismissing the book as "fiction."