Trump, in Wall Street Journal Interview, Ridicules Bolton

June 19, 2020 (EIRNS)—President Trump said in an interview today with the Wall Street Journal that:

“The only thing I liked about Bolton was that everybody thought he was crazy. When you walk into the room with him, you’re in a good negotiating position, because they figure you’re going to war if John Bolton was there. He wanted to go to war with everybody. He never saw a war he didn’t like. He made a tremendous mistake. You know, he and the people that he was pushing, when he went into the Middle East, when he went into Iraq. That was a terrible mistake. There were no weapons of mass destruction. That was John Bolton. When people saw Bolton in the room, they figured probably he was stupid enough to go to war all the time. You know, he was a guy that I could tell you, if I would have listened to him, you and I would be in World War Three right now. He’s crazy. And after the first month or so, you know, I asked him one question. I said, ‘So, do you think you did the right thing by going into Iraq?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ And that’s when I lost him. And that was early on. But no, I disagreed with much of the stuff he said. He was one of many people. I liked listening to many people, and then doing whatever is the right thing to do.”

Later in the interview, Trump returned to the matter of Bolton’s defense of the Iraq invasion: “I said, ‘Explain that to me, because I don’t think you can.’ And he could not explain it to me. So I said, ‘Do you say that just to make yourself feel good? Or do you say that because you really believe it?’ He said, ‘I really believe it.’ I said, ‘Well, then you’ve lost me because it’s just wrong.’ I didn’t know him at all before this. I figured, eh, he’s a hardliner. I like having a hardliner. He’s a hardliner, but I call him a stupid-liner, because it was so foolish.”

Otherwise, Trump seemed quite affected by his Wednesday meeting with the families of people killed by police, describing it as “a very impactful moment. The people I met were incredible people.” Pressed on what he could do for them and for bringing people back together, Trump said “the best I can do it, it’s leadership. But I want to bring the economy back, [and] if I can bring the economy back,... we’re gonna have families where life is going to be a lot easier. Their life is just going to be better.”