Ex-Trump adviser says former president ‘hasn’t got the brains’ for dictatorship

Despite disparagement from John Bolton, critics maintain Trump is clear threat to democracy, given admiration for dictators

A former national security adviser in the Donald Trump White House has said that the ex-president “hasn’t got the brains” to helm a dictatorship, despite his admiration for such rulers.

In an interview with the conservative French outlet Le Figaro, John Bolton, 75, was asked whether Trump had tendencies that mirror dictators like the ones he has previously praised. Bolton not only disparaged Trump’s intellectual capacity, he also disparaged the former president’s professional background, exclaiming: “He’s a property developer, for God’s sake!”

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John Bolton suggests US will leave Nato if ‘erratic’ Trump wins in 2024

Ex-national security adviser calls former boss ‘irrational’ and criticizes Republicans who support him on foreign policy

Ex-national security adviser John Bolton issued harsh remarks against his former boss and the leading 2024 Republican presidential candidate, saying that the US will likely withdraw from Nato if Donald Trump wins the election.

In an interview with the Hill on Thursday, Bolton criticized the former president’s foreign policy after an op-ed he wrote earlier this week called Trump’s behavior “erratic, irrational and unconstrained”.

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John Bolton chose not to brief Trump on Russia Havana syndrome suspicion

Former national security adviser tells podcast ‘we didn’t feel we would get support’ from president during Russia investigation

Donald Trump’s third national security adviser, John Bolton, did not brief the president on suspicions Russia might be behind mysterious “Havana syndrome” attacks on US diplomats because he did not think Trump would support him.

“Since our concern was that one of the perpetrators – maybe the perpetrator – was Russia,” Bolton said, “we didn’t feel we would get support from President Trump if we said, ‘We think the Russians are coming after American personnel.’”

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US charges Iranian man over alleged plot to kill ex-Trump aide John Bolton

Shahram Poursafi, who US says belongs to Revolutionary Guards, offered money to hitman to avenge Suleimani death, DoJ alleges

The US has charged an Iranian man it says is a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with attempting to hire a hitman for $300,000 to kill John Bolton, the former national security adviser in the Trump administration.

The Department of Justice said Shahram Poursafi, also known as Mehdi Rezayi, offered the money in November 2021 to an unidentified person in the US to “eliminate” Bolton, apparently to avenge the drone killing of the IRGC commander Qassem Suleimani, in January 2020.

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John Bolton says he ‘helped plan coups d’etat’ in other countries

Former national security adviser to Donald Trump says US Capitol attack was not a coup because it was not carefully planned

John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Donald Trump and before that ambassador to the United Nations under George W Bush, said on Tuesday he helped plan coup attempts in other countries.

Speaking to CNN after the day’s January 6 committee hearing, Bolton said it was wrong to describe Trump’s attempt to stay in power after the 2020 election as a coup.

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Trump discussed ‘burner phones’ several times, John Bolton says

Revelation from former national security adviser raises pressure on Trump as lawmakers investigate gaps in January 6 call logs

John Bolton, the former national security adviser, has revealed that he heard Donald Trump use the term “burner phones” several times and that they discussed how the disposable devices were deployed by people as a way of avoiding scrutiny of their calls.

Bolton’s intervention compounds Trump’s difficulties amid a billowing controversy relating to seven hours and 37 minutes that are missing in official call logs. The gap occurs in records made for 6 January last year – the day of the violent insurrection at the US Capitol.

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Trump hoped Covid-19 would ‘take out’ former aide John Bolton, book claims

  • Nightmare Scenario details final year of presidency
  • Washington Post reporters’ book one of several on Trump

Donald Trump wanted Covid-19 to “take out” his former national security adviser John Bolton, a new book is set to reveal, as a heated summer of further colourful revelations about the controversial former president spills out from competing tomes.

The forthcoming Nightmare Scenario will stake out the claim, in addition to telling of how Trump advocated shipping Americans who contracted coronavirus while abroad to the prison at Guantánamo Bay.

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Insurrection and inauguration: Joe Biden’s new political era – video

Following the US Capitol riot, Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to Washington DC for the week of Joe Biden’s inauguration to find a downtown area under what is essentially military occupation and a city coming to terms with the trauma of Donald Trump’s final days in office. 

They speak to lifelong residents in the outer suburbs as well the US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who tells of her harrowing experience of the 6 January riot. Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton rails against criticisms of the Republican administration’s handling of the domestic terrorism threat

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‘A disgrace’: former aide John Bolton slams Donald Trump’s early win claim – video

The former Trump US national security adviser John Bolton has said the president's premature claim of victory in the election is 'a disgrace'.

Early on Wednesday, Trump said he would take the election to the supreme court to stop votes being counted. He falsely claimed victory, as the election remained too close to call with millions of votes yet to be counted

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‘Let me finish’: John Bolton clashes with BBC journalist Emily Maitlis over Trump – video

John Bolton, a former national security adviser to the Trump administration, gets into heated exchanges with BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis over why he did not appear at Donald Trump's impeachment trial. He repeatedly tells Maitlis to 'let him finish', and blames House Democrats for empowering Trump when they failed to convict him during the impeachment trial. Maitlis also pressed Bolton on why he worked alongside Trump despite admitting he saw him as corrupt and a threat to American security

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‘Deep down, he’s a terrified little boy’: Bob Woodward, John Bolton and others on Trump

The authors of recent exposés, including Mary Trump and Anthony Scaramucci, on the president, his time in office – and what they expect to happen at the polls

Bob Woodward is associate editor of the Washington Post and the author of 20 books on American politics. In 50 years as a journalist he has covered nine presidents. His reporting on the Watergate break-in and cover-up with his colleague Carl Bernstein helped bring down Richard Nixon and won the Post a Pulitzer prize. His latest book about Donald Trump, Rage, is based on 10 hours of interviews, spread over 19 taped phone calls, often initiated by the president himself, in which Trump proved “only too willing to blow the whistle on himself”, as the Observer’s review noted.

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John Bolton says Trump’s Russian bounty intelligence denial ‘not how system works’ – video

Former US national security advisor John Bolton says Donald Trump's claim to not have been briefed over allegations Russia paid Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill coalition forces is 'not the way the system works'. Speaking on Face the Nation after the release of his tell-all book, The Room Where It Happened , Bolton said the notion that only 100% verified information would reach the president would mean they would receive 'almost nothing'. 'And this intelligence in 2020, by the administration’s own admission, was deemed credible enough to give to our allies'

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Bolton: Trump claim he wasn’t told of Russia bounty report is ‘not how system works’

Ex-national security adviser also says any decision to withhold intelligence would ‘certainly not’ be ‘made only by the briefer’

Donald Trump’s claim not to have been briefed about intelligence suggesting Russia paid Taliban-linked militants to kill US soldiers is “just not the way the system works”, former national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday.

Related: Trump’s niece says 2001 NDA based on ‘fraudulent’ financial information

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Bank of England blocking release of Venezuelan gold, court hears

$1bn gold hoard subject of dispute between Nicolás Maduro and rival Juan Guaidó

Claims that the Bank of England is unlawfully blocking the release of 31 tonnes of gold valued at nearly $1bn(£805m) and intended to combat the coronavirus in Venezuela have been heard in the high court this week.

The bars are among the 400,000 bars of gold held in the Bank’s vaults, but there is a political dispute about their rightful owner.

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John Bolton calls Trump incompetent as president plans Phoenix speech amid pandemic – live

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEanny said Trump was “very pleased” with his Saturday rally, even though there were thousands of unfilled seats in the Tulsa arena.

McEnany’s claim is at odds with multiple reports that Trump has privately lashed out against campaign officials for reports highlighting the event’s attendance.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Trump’s use of the racist phrase “kung flu” to describe coronavirus during his Saturday rally.

“He is linking it to its place of origin,” McEnany said of the president’s use of the phrase.

Related: Donald Trump calls Covid-19 'kung flu' at Tulsa rally

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Trump and Navarro condemn John Bolton’s China claim

The White House fired back at John Bolton on Sunday, seeking to rubbish a key claim in the former national security adviser’s bombshell new book, that Donald Trump asked Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, for help in winning re-election.

Related: Trump's Berman-SDNY disaster suggests William Barr is not so smart after all | Lloyd Green

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The Room Where It Happened review: John Bolton fires broadside that could sink Trump

The ex-national security adviser is no hero or martyr and certainly no prose stylist either. What counts is how damaging his memoir will be

John Bolton’s near-600-page tome is the most damning written account by a Trump administration alumnus, the one that stands to haunt the president come November. In the author’s judgment, “I don’t think he’s fit for office. I don’t think he has the competence to carry out the job.” Joe Biden couldn’t say it better himself.

Related: John Bolton: judge declines to block tell-all Trump book

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John Bolton memoir reveals UK’s fragile relations with Trump

Former US national security adviser reveals series of tensions and pressure points

Donald Trump dashed British hopes that he would take a tougher line on Hong Kong, including by refusing to condemn the Tiananmen Square massacre, according to John Bolton’s book about his time as the US president’s national security adviser.

In one of many episodes in the book that reveal the fragile nature of the UK’s relations with the Trump administration, Bolton writes that the president said Tiananmen Square was decades ago and he did not want to jeopardise a potential trade deal with Beijing.

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Democrats and Republicans react to John Bolton’s bombshell book on Trump – video

Political figures have criticised Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, for his new book, The Room Where It Happened, which makes a series of explosive claims about the US president.

Democrat speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, echoed Bolton in saying Trump was 'unfit' to be president but added that the Republican 'chose loyalty over patriotism'

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Trump battles to halt memoir as Bolton calls president ‘not fit for office’

  • Former security adviser calls Trump ‘stunningly uninformed’
  • DoJ lawyers likely to face battle to halt memoir’s publication

The Trump administration will go to court on Friday in an effort to halt publication of John Bolton’s memoir of his time as national security adviser, on the grounds it contains classified material.

Related: John Bolton says Trump is 'not fit for office' as fallout continues over book – live

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