June 20, 2020: Bolton Calls President "Stunningly Uninformed"

 

6/20/20: John Bolton’s new book, which torches the president, continues to garner headlines.

 

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“I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by re-election calculations.”

 

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton

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Various news agencies have already received copies. The quotes and anecdotes they highlight portray a pigmy in a job too big for him. Bolton, who received $2 million as an advance for his book, writes, “Throughout my West Wing tenure,” which lasted 17 months, “Trump wanted to do what he wanted to do, based on what he knew and what he saw as his own best personal interests.” At another point Bolton adds, “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by re-election calculations.”

 

Peter Baker, a correspondent for The New York Times, has read the book and notes that Bolton describes his old boss, variously, as “irrational,” “impulsive,” “erratic,” and “stunningly uninformed.” Trump, he argues, is not “fit for the job” and lacks the necessary “competence.”

 

How does the president decide what to do? According to Bolton, there’s a basic calculation at play. “There really isn’t any guiding principle that I was able to discern other than what’s good for Donald Trump’s re-election.”

 

As for Trump, he’s doing his best to keep Bolton’s book from getting loose in the public domain. According to the Times, Bolton put it through a required review, with the National Security Council. The process took months and changes were requested to ensure classified information wasn’t leaked inadvertently. Finally, Bolton’s book was approved by career employees at NSC.

 

Then Trump’s toadies stepped in. Robert C. O’Brien his newest National Security Adviser, has said the book still contains classified information. Such as: anything the president might have said, and any recorded belching or sound of gas emitted from the presidential rump.

 

Trump has argued that anything he said would be “highly classified.” So, he can’t be quoted.

 

Bolton’s book is already straining at a figurative leash. Mr. Baker notes that at one point, when a different leak from the White House occurred, the president went ballistic. Bolton had nothing to do with that leak, but writes that he was sent to see Attorney General Bill Barr. He had a message from his boss. Trump demanded that the DOJ “arrest the reporters, force them to serve time in jail and then demand they reveal their sources.” 

 

This way comes fascism, my dear fellow citizens.