LOS ANGELES.–Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, 75, slammed 77-year-old former President Donald Trump for saying that if he were in office Iran would not have launched a missile-and-drone attack against Israel. Bolton called Trump “delusional” for thinking that under his leadership Iran would not have responded to the April 1 Israeli strike on its Damascus, Syria embassy, killing two Al Qud’s generals, including 10 others. One of the generals killed, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Reza Zahedi was identified by Israel’s Mossad intel service as planning and orchestrating the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre that killed 1,200 Israeli civilians in the largest one death toll since the Nazi Holocaust. Bolton was fired by Trump Sept. 10, 2019 as National Security Adviser for advocating various foreign wars, including going to war against Iran, the Kremlin and North Korea.
Bolton has carried an unremitting vendetta against Trump, largely over losing his job for warmongering as National Security Adviser. Why Trump hired Bolton April 9, 2018 is anyone’s guess, probably because left over Neocon advisers urged Trump to give him a short. Of all of Trump’s foreign policy achievement, his proudest achievement was keeping the U.S. out of reckless foreign wars. Bolton was all in as a foreign policy advisor to former President George W. Bush on the Iraq War. At some point Trump concluded that Bolton’s answer for every foreign policy crisis was to used the Pentagon. Trump fired Bolton precisely because he continued the Neocon direction of going to war as opposed to building relationships through diplomacy and common ground. Bolton dismisses Trump’s unprecedented diplomacy with 40-year-old North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
Kim once threatened Trump with an ICBM capable of hitting the United States before Trump engage in the kind of diplomacy that resulted June 30, 2019 in being the first U.S. president to visit North Korea. Trump in a campaign rally in Lehigh Valley’s Schnecksville, Pa., blamed the attack on Biden’s “weakness,” saying “it would not have happened if we were in office,” something that irked Bolton. “I just think Trump is delusional on this point,” Bolton told CNN host Jake Tapper on State of the Union. CNN likes to grandstand using disgruntled past Trump White House employees to attack the former president. Bolton has zero creditability, simply likes to feel relevant going on liberal TV to denounce Trump, part of his vindictive campaign in the liberal press. Trump has said that the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine invasion would not have happened on his watch.
Bolton has nothing good to say about Trump, not saying anything negative about 81-year-old President Joe Biden for getting the U.S. into a proxy war against the Kremlin. Bolton advised the Trump White House to get into wars with Russia, Iran and North Korea, something Trump said would start WW III. “It’s a point that nobody can refute or confirm one way or the other. He doesn’t have any idea what to do in the Middle East in this situation . . .” Bolton said, knowing that Israel was not attacked by Iran or anyone else with Trump in office. Under Biden, Ukraine was invaded by Russia Feb. 24, 2022 and Israel was attacked Oct. 7, 2023 by Hamas in the worst massacre since the Nazi Holocaust. “Remember when he threatened fire and fury against North Korea? Within a year he had fallen in love with Kim Jong-un. So he’s not qualified to be president,” Bolton told Tapper.
Bolton tells CNN what it wants to hear about Trump, completely twisting Trump’s formidable foreign policy record in the Middle East and Asia. Bolton thinks Trump “fell in love with Kim Jong-un,” but in fact he defused an angry North Korean dictator into hosting a summit and visit for Trump into North Korea. If that doesn’t’ sound like a major accomplishment nothing will. When it came to the Mideast, Bolton ignores the Sept 15, 2020 Abraham Accords in which Trump got Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan to sign peace treaties with Israel. CNN likes Bolton’s twisted views on Trump because, it preaches to the anti-Trump choir at the Democrat-controlled cable network. Bolton and CNN can’t stomach the fact that under Biden’s watch the world has been set ablaze, with Iran’s latest attack only the most recent foreign policy crisis.
Listening to CNN and Bolton you’d think Trump was responsible for the Ukraine War Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and now Iran’s latest assault with 300 drones and missiles on Israel. It’s not farfetched at all to think the world would look very differently under Trump’s leadership. Iran would have thought twice about attacking Israel, knowing Trump would have hit the Ayatollah hard for his aggression. Trump’s accomplishment with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un was a singular foreign policy success, turning a mortal U.S. enemy into a potentially cooperating partner. When it comes to Ukraine, CNN and Bolton won’t admit that Putin would not have invaded under Trump’s watch because he would have reassured the Kremlin that he would oppose Ukraine’s entry into NATO, but, more importantly, worked out new security arrangements for Ukraine.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
