Former national security adviser John Bolton warned Tuesday that there is a “much higher chance” of a major international crisis in the upcoming second administration of President-elect Trump.
The prominent foreign policy hawk said Trump’s lack of focus and inability to stick to policy decisions could trigger an overseas disaster.
“The risk of an international crisis … is much more likely in a second Trump term,” Bolton said in a Christmas Eve interview with the Guardian. “Given Trump’s inability to focus on coherent decision making, I’m very worried about about how that might look.”
Bolton, who served for 17 months in the first Trump administration, scoffed at Trump’s vow to quickly end conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
“It’s typical Trump: it’s all braggadocio,” Bolton said.
Bolton, 76, a longtime foreign policy hardliner who also served in the George W. Bush administration, was a big supporter of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has called for U.S. military action against Iran, North Korea and other countries over the years.
Trump regularly derides his ex-aide as a “warmonger” and worse.
Bolton said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin feels he can manipulate Trump, while Trump is oblivious to the danger of being used.
“(Putin) believes he knows how to play Trump, that Trump’s an easy mark,” Bolton said. “If you don’t understand how the person you’re talking about on the other side views you, that’s a real lack of situational awareness that can only cause trouble.”
Bolton admitted that he wrongly believed Trump would become a more disciplined leader after he was first elected to the White House in 2016.
Those hopes were dashed once Bolton started working alongside Trump and observed him firsthand.
“He doesn’t know much about foreign policy. He’s not a big reader,” Bolton said. “He doesn’t think these facts are important. He thinks he looks the other guy across the table in the eye and they make a deal and that’s what’s important.”
During the presidential campaign, Bolton said he couldn’t support Trump but refused to endorse Kamala Harris either.
Despite the harsh criticism, Bolton praised Trump’s picks of Sen. Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State and Rep. Mike Waltz for national security adviser. He slammed ex-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, as “really dangerous.”
Bolton has been isolated in Republican power circles as Trump has pushed the party far away from his muscular foreign policy views.
But Bolton predicted that the GOP as a whole will eventually return to its hawkish roots.
“Trump is an aberration and, when he leaves the political scene, the party will snap back,” Bolton said.
