President Trump has asked his National Security Advisor John Bolton to resign, adding that he “disagreed strongly” with many of his foreign policy suggestions – but reports indicate that Bolton was also suspected of leaking to the press.
I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2019
….I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2019
Back in April, Bolton was accused of leaking to the press, and on a similar note the president’s personal secretary was recently asked to resign after having an “off-the-record” conversation with a journalist who apparently reported on the information anyway.
Additionally, Bolton was notably not originally invited to the president’s meeting last month regarding a peace deal that would be presented to Afghan and Taliban officials out of fears he would leak information to the press, according to The Week.
“When the president’s top aides were preparing for a meeting at Trump’s golf resort in New Jersey last month to discuss the peace deal that would be presented to Afghan and Taliban officials in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Doha, Qatar, Bolton was reportedly not originally invited out of concern that he would oppose the agenda and leak info to the press after the meeting,” the outlet reported.
Given that Bolton’s “foreign war” advocacy ran into direct opposition of the president itself, it wouldn’t be surprising if he used the press to gain extra leverage for his positions.
Furthermore, during a June interview with NBC, President Trump indicated that he has both war hawks like Bolton and war doves in his administration so he can have input from all sides of a debate.
“John Bolton is absolutely a hawk,” the president told NBC back in June. “If it was up to him he’d take on the whole world at one time, okay?”
This implies that Bolton wasn’t canned only because of his war advocacy, which the president pushed back against anyway, but also for having a reputation for leaking.
Ironically enough, before he became the national security advisor, Bolton had blasted leaks coming out of the White House as “completely unacceptable.”
Learn more about the reasons behind Bolton’s resignation!
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