Donald Trump’s path towards a second term in the White House should be met with concern based on who would hypothetically serve alongside the present Republican front runner, former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said in a new interview.
Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador who served as national security adviser during Trump’s first White House term from 2018 to 2019, has not been shy about critiquing the ex-president—notably in relation to the ongoing criminal case involving Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office in January 2021.
Trump became the first president ever indicted by the Department of Justice, facing 40 counts for purportedly retaining sensitive government information, stemming from an FBI document seizure at the Republican presidential frontrunner’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in 2022. Trump was issued a grand jury subpoena in May 2022 that required him to return all documents in his possession that were marked classified. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and pleaded not guilty in the case being overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Trump’s Former National Security Adviser John Bolton on Donald Trump:
“I don’t think he’s fit to be president, and I think one of his problems in a second term if he were to win is that many other people, like myself, would not want to serve in his administration.” pic.twitter.com/sXxR8DJhWG
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) January 24, 2024
“I do not think that he would ask me to [work in his Cabinet], and my answer would be no. I don’t think [Trump’s] fit to be president, and I think one of his problems in a second term if he were to win is that many other people, like myself, would not want to serve in his administration,” Bolton told Ecuadorian radio host Guillermo Hidalgo on Tuesday.
He added: “The quality of people would unfortunately not be what a president needs for senior advisers.”
Newsweek reached out to Bolton via email for comment.
His comments came before the New Hampshire primary results, which resulted in Trump defeating lone GOP candidate Nikki Haley by 11 points. Despite multiple legal cases and questions about his ability to garner enough non-conservative voters in a rematch with Biden, support for Trump has been steady—exemplified by the 51 percent of Iowa Caucus goers he garnered.
Bolton said it is essentially a formality that Trump and President Joe Biden will meet again in November, even though polls show that the majority of Americans want neither candidate to be their respective parties’ nominees.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Since Trump was indicted on the classified document charges, Bolton has repeatedly used the case as an example of Trump’s fitness as president.
In October, he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that reports of Trump purportedly sharing U.S. nuclear submarine secrets with Anthony Pratt, an Australian billionaire and CEO of the U.S.-based packaging company Pratt Industries, was another indication that Trump is “not fit for the job.”
“I think it is something for foreign leaders to worry about,” Bolton told Blitzer. “They may trust president’s advisers, they may trust others they deal with on a regular basis, but they’d always have to worry that information that got to Trump might slip out in an unguarded moment.”
Trump has referred to Bolton as a “moron” who was used to intimidate foreign leaders who thought the U.S. would acquiesce on certain issues.
“I found John Bolton to be one of the dumbest people in Government but, I am proud to say, I used him well,” Trump wrote in January 2023, adding that Bolton is “a total & unhinged WARMONGER.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.