The historical roll call of White House national security adviser (NSA) is storied and when John Bolton was appointed by Donald Trump in the turbulent weeks of 2018, he conceded on a Fox News interview that the honour came so abruptly that it “hasn’t sunk in”.
Democrats quickly denounced the appointment, chiefly on the grounds that Bolton, whose political life began as an intern for Richard Nixon’s vice-president Spiro Agnew, had been a strenuous advocate for the weapons-of-mass-destruction myth that facilitated the 2003 Iraq War.
Bolton was Trump’s third NSA, replacing Lieut Gen HR McMaster, who stepped down. Before that, Lieut Gen Mike Flynn had lasted just 24 days in the role. At the time, it was reported that Trump had always viewed Bolton as a candidate, but had resisted appointing him not because of Bolton’s track record but because he was somewhat disturbed by his signature walrus moustache.
It may have been a harbinger. The relationship between two strong, intransigent personalities was doomed and as Bolton arrived at a courthouse in suburban Maryland on Friday morning to hand himself in after a federal indictment relating to his time in office, citing 18 felony charges based on unlawfully sharing and storing classified information, he may have been wishing that he had been passed over entirely.
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On the surface, Bolton’s court appearance can be added to the indictments of prominent Trump political enemies: the New York attorney general Letitia James, who has been charged with alleged fraud, and his own former FBI director James Comey who faces two federal charges, including making a false statement to Congress.
Both of those cases are regarded as flimsy. But the investigation into Bolton had started during the Biden administration and contains information that will be more difficult for his legal team to explain away: that Bolton had sent out, via email, diary notes detailing his daily affairs as NSA and that they had been delivered to two individuals who did not have security clearance to receive them.
Worse, those notes were then hacked by someone claiming connections to the government of Iran.
Hence the early-morning August raid on Bolton’s home in Bethesda, ordered by FBI director Kash Patel, who alerted his public that something was up by issuing the loaded post: “NO ONE is above the law: FBI on mission.”
The role of NSA is notoriously volatile: Only Zbigniew Brzezinski (1977-1981), McGeorge Bundy (1961-1966) and Henry Kissinger (1961-1975) could be classified as long-term occupants. All three went on to enjoy gilded NSA afterlives.
[ Former Trump adviser John Bolton indicted by justice departmentOpens in new window ]
Bolton had not long left office when he wrote a scathing review of working with Trump in a highly-publicised and controversial memoir, The Room Where It Happened. Leaked copies led to intense pressure on Bolton to testify against Trump’s impeachment hearings in the Senate, which he refused to do. The following June, the administration attempted to block publication on the grounds that Bolton had signed a non-disclosure agreement after he quit/ was fired in September 2019.
The allegations ranged from sensational to petty, none of it flattering to Trump’s grasp on international affairs: that he was uncertain as to whether Finland was part of Russia; that he told Mike Kelly that an invasion of Venezuela would be “cool”; that he was intent on copper-fastening his nuclear summit with North Korea by sending Kim Jong-un a compact disc of Elton John’s Rocket Man with an autograph – by the US president rather than the Pinner crooner.
More damningly, it contended that Trump was deeply hostile to Nato, that he regarded Europe as a hostile force and that he tried to persuade China to help to win the 2020 election. The claims were rejected not just by Trump, who described Bolton as a “sick puppy” but by Mike Pompeo, who said: “I was in the room too.”
But Bolton remained a vociferous critic of Trump in more recent years, frequently appearing on CNN during his legal travails throughout last year’s election. Among his critiques was the observation made during the charges Trump faced for storing classified documents in his home in Mar-a-Lago, which were dropped following his election win in November.
“In most offices you would have a very clear segregation of sensitive classified material locked in safes, handled very carefully versus all the unclassified material. This to me is more evidence that Donald Trump didn’t give much attention to the sensitivity of classified information.”
[ FBI raids home of John Bolton, ex-national security adviser to Donald TrumpOpens in new window ]
Trump could afford to be subdued when asked for his reaction to Bolton’s indictment on Thursday, feigning sombre indifference.
“I didn’t know, you are telling me for the first time but I think he’s a bad person. He’s a bad guy, yeah. It’s too bad. But that’s the way it goes.”
Ironically, Bolton, 76 now, faces into a difficult chapter in his life even as Trump basks in his role as international peacemaker.
“Trump is Trump,” Bolton wrote in his memoir.
“I came to understand that he believed he could run the executive branch and establish national-security policies on instinct, relying on personal relationships with foreign leaders and with made for television showmanship always top of mind.”
