President Donald Trump announced Tuesday, via Twitter, that he had fired National Security Adviser John Bolton.
Trump said, “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions…”
This comes shortly after the White House announced a planned meeting with the Taliban at Camp David in Maryland. Bolton was hired as the replacement to HR McMaster in March 2018. Bolton’s support of a “global police” role for the US military appears to contradict President Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, and the two had reportedly feuded over Trump’s intent to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan.
I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2019
The President said that he accepted Bolton’s requested resignation Tuesday morning, though Bolton himself tweeted that he had offered it Monday night of his own accord.
I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, "Let's talk about it tomorrow."
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) September 10, 2019
Trump also announced that he will name a new National Security Adviser sometime next week. Bolton had served in various roles in both law and national security for presidents Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, and George W Bush, most notably as the Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 until 2006. He was a vocal critic of the Iran nuclear deal, which likely played some part in Trump’s hiring him in the first place.
If Bolton played as large of a role in the administration as is typical of the National Security Adviser, he and Trump likely disagreed on much more than Afghanistan, or the Middle East writ large. Trump’s move to de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula were not popular with foreign policy hawks and neoconservatives such as Bolton. Trump’s views on NATO and the United Nations may also contradict those of Bolton, whose policy goals seemed to always involve further international involvement.
Bolton was the third National Security Adviser to Trump, after Michael Flynn was forced out due to issues relating to the Mueller investigation, and McMaster resigned due to a reported conflict with then-Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis.
Bolton was the 27th National Security Adviser, and only Eisenhower (5) and Reagan (6) will have had more during their presidencies than Donald Trump.
Andrew Bartholomew
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