Tag: John Bolton

Bolton says he hopes Trump is 1-term president, warns country imperiled by his reelectionBolton says he hopes Trump is 1-term president, warns country imperiled by his reelection

Here are the many headlines from ABC’s interview with Trump’s former top aide.

President Donald Trump‘s longest-serving national security adviser John Bolton condemned his presidency as dangerously damaging to the United States and argued the 2020 election is the last “guardrail” to protect the country from him.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Bolton offered a brutal indictment of his former boss, saying, “I hope (history) will remember him as a one-term president who didn’t plunge the country irretrievably into a downward spiral we can’t recall from. We can get over one term — I have absolute confidence, even if it’s not the miracle of a conservative Republican being elected in November. Two terms, I’m more troubled about.”

In the interview with ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz and in his new book, “The Room Where It Happened,” Bolton paints Trump as “stunningly uninformed,” making “erratic” and “irrational” decisions, unable to separate his personal and political interests from the country’s, and marked and manipulated by foreign adversaries. Continue reading.

Trump Threatens Bolton With ‘Bombs Dropped on Him!’ After Judge Rejects Block of Book

Bolton “likes dropping bombs on people, and killing them. Now he will have bombs dropped on him!” the president said

In an unhinged Twitter rant, President Donald Trump went after his former national security adviser John Bolton, threatening him and using violent language following a judge’s decision to allow publication of Bolton’s upcoming book.

On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the District of Columbia rejected Trump’s request to block publication of the book. But Trump pounced on Lamberth’s criticism of Bolton in the decision by raging on Twitter that the former national security adviser liked “killing people” and that he would pay “a really big price” and “will have bombs dropped on him!”

“Bolton broke the law and has been called out and rebuked for so doing, with a really big price to pay. He likes dropping bombs on people, and killing them. Now he will have bombs dropped on him!” the president wrote. Continue reading.

Judge denies request to block Bolton book

The Hill logoA federal judge has denied a Trump administration request to block former national security adviser John Bolton‘s book from being published.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in an order released Saturday that “while Bolton’s unilateral conduct raises grave national security concerns, the government has not established that an injunction is an appropriate remedy.”

The judge noted that the Justice Department’s push for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction came after the book was printed and shipped across the country ahead of its scheduled release on Tuesday. Continue reading.

What Bolton’s Memoir Really Tells Us About Trump – And Him

What can we learn from John Bolton’s new memoir? History will not absolve him, his execrable ex-boss Donald Trump or the Republican political apparatus that has enabled the toxic Trump regime.

Well before Bolton’s book arrived, we already knew the single most important fact about the Trump presidency and Trump himself: He and the Republicans who surround him are willing to sacrifice tens of thousands of American lives if their deaths might somehow promote his reelection.

The latest attempts by Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to pretend that the deadly coronavirus is now, as the president said, “fading away,” only provide fresh evidence of their bloody perfidy. If the present infection trends continue — intensified by events like Trump’s Tulsa rally — then we will have buried more than 200,000 Americans before Election Day. Continue reading.

Seizing the Presidency to Suit His Own Needs

New York Times logoIn a new book, John R. Bolton portrays Donald Trump as a president who sees his office as an instrument to advance his own personal and political interests over those of the nation.

One day in the summer of 2018, John R. Bolton commiserated with John F. Kelly over the burdens of working for President Trump. Mr. Kelly, then the White House chief of staff, had just had another argument with the president in trying to stop him from using the power of his office to punish a political foe. It did not go well.

“Has there ever been a presidency like this?” Mr. Kelly asked plaintively.

“I assured him there had not,” Mr. Bolton recalls in his new book. Continue reading.

Justice Department seeks emergency order to block publication of Bolton’s book

Washington Post logoThe Justice Department on Wednesday night sought an emergency order from a judge to block the publication of former national security adviser John Bolton’s forthcoming White House memoir, escalating a legal battle against the former Trump aide even after many of his book’s most explosive details had spilled out into public view

The move came after the administration filed a civil suit against Bolton on Tuesday, targeting the proceeds of the book and asking a court to order him to delay its scheduled June 23 release. Less than 24 hours later, the Wall Street Journal released an excerpt of the memoir, and lengthy accounts were published by other news organizations.

Wednesday’s move sought to formally enjoin Bolton from allowing his book to be published, a legal strategy experts said was unlikely to succeed, particularly given that the book has already been printed and shipped to warehouses and copies distributed to the media for review. Continue reading.

The Memo: Bolton exposé makes Trump figure of mockery

The Hill logoJohn Bolton’s most potent weapon against President Trump is simple but brutal — mockery.

The New York Times published details from the former national security advisor’s book Wednesday afternoon, and other outlets soon followed. The revelations caused an immediate firestorm.

By Bolton’s account, Trump on one occasion asked if Finland is part of Russia. He was not aware that the United Kingdom possesses nuclear weapons. He was eager to see if an autographed copy of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” could be delivered to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.  Continue reading.

Bolton book portrays ‘stunningly uninformed’ Trump

The Hill logoFormer national security adviser John Bolton‘s forthcoming book portrays President Trump as a “stunningly uninformed” officeholder who routinely conflated different people, veered off on unrelated tangents during critical meetings and had little concept of the world with which he dealt.

In the book, “The Room Where It Happened,” Bolton describes his year and a half as Trump’s third chief national security aide as a roller-coaster effort to keep an erratic president on topic in spite of a lack of an overarching theory of national security or foreign policy that guided the first-time politician.

“He second-guessed people’s motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government,” Bolton writes. Continue reading.

Here are 7 stunning details from a new report about John Bolton’s explosive book

AlterNet logoThough the Trump administration is making a show of trying to stop it, former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s book is already making waves.

The New York Times, which received an advance copy of the book before its official publication next week, published a report on Wednesday laying out some of its key revelations.

While Bolton himself is in many ways a duplicitous and untrustworthy figure, his allegations about President Donald Trump are worth taking seriously. We’ve already seen that much of what is going on behind closed doors is nefarious and detrimental to the country — and a person with Bolton’s access would likely know many of the White House’s darkest secrets.

Here are 7 stunning details from the report: Continue reading.