NBC News recently reported that former national security adviser John Bolton is continuing his post-firing trash talk towards President Donald Trump.
During a private meeting with major Morgan Stanley hedge fund clients, Bolton contended that Trump’s foreign policy approach is not in line with any of his top advisers. There were reportedly six attendees.
Bolton is currently working on a book, which will likely lambast Trump’s relatively restrained foreign policy. The former national security adviser argued that Trump’s “win-or-lose” negotiation style does not work with foreign policy like it does in real estate.
He also added that the president doesn’t understand how interconnected relationships are in geopolitics.
Although Bolton agrees with Trump’s China trade policy, the two had major disagreements over Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Ukraine according to the report.
NBC went into more details about the nature of Bolton’s disagreement:
Bolton told the gathering of Morgan Stanley’s largest hedge fund clients that he was most frustrated with Trump over his handling of Turkey, people who were present said. Noting the broad bipartisan support in Congress to sanction Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan purchased a Russian missile defense system, Bolton said Trump’s resistance to the move was unreasonable, four people present for his speech said. –NBC News
Trump made headlines by sending Erdogan a letter in October sternly advising him against “slaughtering thousands of people” after U.S. forces were pulled out of Northern Syria. He then told the Turkish leaders “Don’t be a tough guy! Don’t be a fool!” Erdogan responded by saying that when the time is right “we will take the necessary steps” to respond to the American president’s bold note.
NBC expanded on the fallout of Trump’s conversation with Erdogan:
During an Oct. 6 phone call with Erdogan, Trump agreed to pull back U.S. troops from northeast Syria so Turkish forces could launch an attack against America’s Kurdish allies in the area. The presence of U.S. forces had deterred Erdogan from invading Syria, which he had threatened to do for years. Trump’s decision, followed by an order for all U.S. troops to exit Syria, was widely criticized even among the president’s Republican allies and was seen by many as a gift to the Turkish leader.
Additionally, Bolton claims that there is a personal or business relationship behind Trump’s position on Turkey because none of his main advisers agree with him, according to an account from the attendees of the Morgan Stanley meeting.
NBC News highlighted that the Trump organization allowed Trump’s name to be used on a property in Istanbul. In 2012, Erdogan and Ivanka Trump were in attendance during its grand opening.
Bolton was also asked about what will happen if Trump is re-elected. Bolton allegedly slammed Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and Senator Rand Paul according to the NBC report, which goes into further detail below:
Bolton said Trump could go full isolationist — with the faction of the Republican Party that aligns with Paul’s foreign policy views taking over the GOP — and could withdraw the U.S. from NATO and other international alliances, three people present for his remarks said.
He also suggested that Kushner and Ivanka Trump could convince the president to rewrite his legacy and nominate a liberal like Lawrence Tribe — a Harvard Law professor who has questioned Trump’s fitness for office and was a legal adviser to Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign — to the Supreme Court, the people present for Bolton’s speech said.
Bolton said, with an eye roll that suggested he doesn’t take them seriously, that Kushner and Ivanka Trump could do so in an attempt to prove they had real influence and were in the White House representing the people they want to be in social circles with at home in New York City, the people present for his remarks said. –NBC News
Bolton capped off his private speech by saying that people can learn more about his time during the Trump administration in his new book, which was recently greenlit by publisher Simon & Schuster.
The former national security adviser was a hindrance to Trump’s America First vision of foreign policy restraint. It is safe to say that Bolton’s upcoming book will likely be filled with neoconservative talking points and attacks levied towards Trump’s more rational approach to foreign policy.
