Is John Bolton Boxing In Donald Trump?

Curt Mills

Politics, United States

The White House fears knife-fighting reprisals from the disgruntled former national security advisor.

He could be “the John Dean of Donald Trump,” says a former senior administration official. 

The president’s former national security advisor—the flame-throwing John R. Bolton—is now a private citizen. Gone, but not allowing himself to be forgotten. As evidenced by pointed public remarks made earlier this month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and even more searing comments made at a gathering in September at the secretive Gatestone Institute, Bolton is making no bones about distancing himself policy-wise from the president of the United States. 

Bolton noted wryly at CSIS that he was now “free to speak, in unvarnished terms.” But the million-dollar question in Washington these days is if Bolton is doing more.

“So not surprising,” said an administration interlocutor who’s known Bolton for years, in response to a rash of unfavorable leaks now shelling the administration. “Ukrainegate”—that is the impeachment inquiry—now subsumes the White House. As House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff said Wednesday, President Trump “sought to coerce a vulnerable ally into conducting sham investigations involving his opponent,” referring to leading Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden, Jr. The White House denies that characterization, and leading administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have said they will not cooperate with the House inquiry. 

Still, the matter suddenly colors all of U.S. politics—with the Democratic candidates, including leading rivals such as Bernie Sanders—closing ranks around Biden at the Ohio debate Wednesday night. Sanders emphasized the House had “no choice” but to impeach Trump, for violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause, an Article I provision that holds that “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present… of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”