Washington, Jun 26 (IANS): Former US National Security Advisor (NSA) John Bolton has claimed that President Donald Trump "has trouble with women leaders" and used former UK Prime Minister Theresa May as an example, it was reported.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News on Thursday, Bolton, who described Trump as a "talker" who "likes to talk", he said of May: "(She) is the kind of politician who says what she has to say, and there's not a lot of small talk.

"There's not a lot of back and forth. That's a personal style. Doesn't come anywhere close to Donald Trump's personal style.

"My own opinion, and I can't prove this, I think he has trouble with women leaders."

Bolton, who was sacked by the President last September after 17 months in the White House, also said that Trump "had trouble" with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"These are not substantive disagreements. These are personality issues.

"But because of the way Trump looks at relations with other leaders, he has enormous difficulty distinguishing between the personal relationship he has with the leader of another country, and the fundamental US relationship with the other country as a whole," the former NSA told Sky News.

When asked if Trump was sexist, Bolton said: "Time and again, we seemed to run into that difficulty."

But he pointed out that Trump "had bad relationships with plenty of male leaders too".

Bolton also said in the Sky News interview that the Trump leadership had made the coronavirus crises and racial division in the US worse.

He claimed that the President "didn't want to hear" about COVID-19 in early January when he was told by government officials it was "a potentially huge problem".

Bolton also defended his decision not to testify during Trump's impeachment inquiry, saying: "The House Democrats took the impeachment process right off a cliff and halfway down they looked up and said 'hey come and join us' and I wasn't about to do that."

Bolton has made a series of allegations against Trump in his new tell-all book, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir", which hit shops this week after a federal judge ruled it could be published despite the White House trying to block the release.

The book includes claims that Trump had been unaware that the UK was a nuclear power, that he had sought help from Chinese President Xi Jinping to win this November's US presidential election, and that Trump had asked if Finland was part of Russia.

Trump has said Bolton "broke the law" in publishing the book and also tweeted he was trying to get even for being fired "like the sick puppy he is".