Trump May Have Reach His Limit with Warhawk Bolton, Suggests Washington Examiner

July 24, 2019 (EIRNS)—The Washington Examiner wrote yesterday that President Donald Trump has reportedly reached his limit with the endless war policy of National Security Adviser John Bolton, and is seeking to remove him.

In a July 23 article, entitled, “Trump, Souring on John Bolton, Meets One Potential Replacement and Eyes Another,” correspondent Steven Nelson reports: “President Trump’s frustrations with National Security Adviser John Bolton are boiling over and he is considering removing his hawkish foreign policy aide, according to sources close to the White House.”

He quotes former White House official said, “It’s certainly become clear to anyone who knows the way this President operates that Bolton’s time is coming to an end. It’s just unclear if he has a few more weeks or a few more months.” Another former White House official told the daily, “the President has seriously been considering other options.” Two additional former White House officials corroborated these remarks.

Nelson cites the Washington Post as reporting earlier this month, the claim that White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Bolton “are barely on speaking terms,” and that one of Mulvaney’s deputies has the task to “regularly battle” Bolton allies.

Nelson writes that insiders have named two possible candidates to replace Bolton, as retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor and Maj. Gen. Ricky Waddell. Macgregor is a long-time critic of regime change in Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria, and is reported to have met recently with the President. General Waddell was Deputy National Security Adviser under McMaster, whom Bolton replaced when he became National Security Adviser. Waddell currently serves as Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and is reportedly favored by Mike Pompeo, with whom, Nelson avers, Bolton “has vied for leadership on foreign affairs.”

Articles, such as that in the Examiner that rely on anonymous sources must be evaluated with caution. However, a growing pro-Trump spectrum of forces view Bolton’s policy as dangerous, which could bring the world to the brink of nuclear war, and this article appears to be a venue for those forces to bring the firing Bolton to a head.