John Bolton's case for optimism about Donald Trump

In order to start his second term, President Donald Trump applied for revenge to President Joe Biden, Elite law firm, elite universities and even some of his former employees -including John Bolton.

Bolton has been working as a national security advisor in every Republican presidential administration since the 80s. Together they tore up the common comprehensive action plan, which is better known as “Iranian nuclear agreements”, which was set up by President Barack Obama.

However, the Trump Bolton partnership should not take. Bolton left the Trump administration sympathetic and has been a constant critic of the President since then. So it should not be a surprise that Trump canceled his security details within a few hours after taking office for a second term in January.

Remewing – a topic of the first 100 days of Trump – was one reason to speak to Bolton this week. The other was to get his attitude to how our democracy is doing at the moment. Another former employee of Trump named John, former chief of staff John Kelly, said Trump fits the definition of a fascist.

But Bolton would not go that far even after 100 days of repayment. Our conversation, which was processed for length and clarity, is below.

I am not with John Kelly about his assessment of Trump, what Trump does and what's going on [his behavior]. Fascist [however]You have to think at a conceptual level what Trump never does.

Would the term “fascist” argue because it is too simple?

It is too far beyond Trump's skills. He has no philosophy. In the national security room, he has no major strategy and no politics that we understand this term conventionally. It was difficult for me to accept. … there are many people around him with problematic philosophies, people who have the ability to think at a more conceptual level. What you say can ultimately be reflected in certain Trump decisions, but it is not because he shares your worldview or the like.

What was her impression of his approach – if not something that was for fascism or authoritarianism when they were in his administration?

I think he wants to be the focus of attention. I think that's probably his main motivation factor.

I think his approach was once described by [conservative columnist] Charles Krauthammer very good. Krauthammer said he started assuming that Trump was an 11-year-old. But after a precise evaluation, he realized that he was free for about 10 years: Trump is really a 1-year-old who simply sees everything in the world and asks the question: “What is there for me?”

Someone else, I don't remember the name, observed that Trump has no ideas, he has reactions. And I think that's an important insight.

If you made all his decisions during his first term, you would be a large archipelago of points; Many of the points I had agreed with. But if they try to connect the points, Trump could not connect the points themselves.

What did you think about the first 100 days of the second administration?

I think it's even more incoherent. What you see now in public [is] What many of us saw privately during the first term.

Obviously, they spent the four years in exile in the planning of Mar-A-Lago. [In] Her first 100 days, much more from Trump's view than in his first 100 days in the first term. I am not sure whether the story will be much more follow-up after this activity boost in the first 100 days.

I think Trump is stuck in many ancillary questions that attract attention. For example, he is now chairman of the Kennedy Center board. And I can't imagine anything more important than for a man who knows so much about buildings [than] To spend a little time with the question of the carpets in the Kennedy Center, the carpet, the curtains and the stages.

I think you have something that I am constantly hit by. While this appears to be serious administration with serious ideas, there are also all of these distractions that make it appear like a clown car.

The DOG shots and then the hiring of the nuclear security personnel, the notorious Houthi PC -Kleingruppen -Chat, the tariffs, no tariffs, tariffs, just a joke, no tariffs. At the same time, they have the retaliation campaign that we talked about. They have questioned themselves against court resolutions and the judiciary. They have the silence of language left and right; The first change.

If you see these constitutional violations, are you concerned about the state of the Republic?

I don't think Trump is an existential threat. I think our institutions are much stronger than him. … I think we'll survive.

But I think many of the things you mentioned, for example, came out of the Executive Order, Chris Krebs, the former head of the cyber security and infrastructure offices in the Department of Homeland Security, in his first term for law enforcement because he dared to say that the election 2020 was safe and free of interference in Cyberspace, which Trump did not want. He exhibited a scholarship holder named Miles Taylor, who had been chief of staff for the secretary for home protection. These are measures by a president without a predicate for a criminal investigation, which I consider very threatening.

But you have to evaluate all of this [as] Trump takes the first step. He did all of this in the first 100 days. He did it in Trump time because he stays up until two in the morning. He is constantly active. Of course, the judicial system does not normally react at such a speed. Trump makes his headline and then passes to something else.

The real question is: what follows?

I think if we come back in a few years, we will only see the first 100 days in ashes because the dishes will take place. I think that's the ultimate check. It will obviously cost people money for legal fees and time and deterioration and concern. But I think many of these efforts will fail, and they will determine precedence cases that make it even more difficult for a future president.

It took 95 years since the Smoot Hawley tariffs in 1930 were an act of monumental stupidity. I think the story will find that Trump-Vance tariffs will be another monumental act of stupidity and hopefully another 95-year lesson. From this perspective, a lot of what happened in the first 100 days is incomplete, since Trump, while Trump has moved his farmer in King 4, still reacts the rest of the system.

They worked under four presidential administrations, from Reagan to George HW Bush to George W. Bush, of course President Trump. Does this historical long view work that you personally work for your advantage in our difficult times?

Well, we suffered much worse in this country. We had a civil war in which over 600,000 soldiers died on one thing or another, and the country continued. I don't underestimate the problems that Trump causes. I just think that it is important to bring so many people over the suggestion that this is unacceptable. I think sometimes the use of the rhetoric, which says that this is existential people. And I would like to convince as many people as possible that this is an aberration in American politics, that it is not sustainable, and especially in the Republican Party, that we will have to deduct ourselves from 2026, certainly in 2028.