Trump’s ex-national security adviser John Bolton calls him “old and tired” for GOP’s 2024 hopes and questions who they choose to put forward.
The Washington Post reports that Bolton was reportedly pushing GOP candidates to put forward someone who was relatively young and who had experience abroad and who would represent America abroad.
“Bolton pushed those candidates to bring forward the next John F. Kennedy or Barack Obama if they wanted to win the nomination,” the Post reports, citing unnamed sources.
On Sunday, Bolton was asked how he would explain to voters why he didn’t vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
“It’s easy to say,” he replied. “We will vote our hearts.”
Bolton, the one-time ambassador to the United Nations, served as Trump’s undersecretary of State and played a critical role in building America’s relationship with Russia.
Bolton is a fierce critic of the Iran nuclear deal and called the decision to withdraw from the agreement “catastrophic” in a Washington Post op-ed.
He was also a foreign policy hawk on the Obama administration’s Middle East policies.
Bolton is now a conservative pundit with a conservative radio show.
He was also a vocal critic of President Obama in 2013, when he wrote a piece titled “Trump’s War in Syria: Our Country is at War,” in which he argued Trump’s decision to bomb Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate led to an even bigger loss of life than earlier airstrikes.
The Post reports that Bolton will continue to serve as the president’s main national security adviser despite his reservations about working in foreign policy.
But this isn’t a new revelation to his critics, since many have publicly called for his removal in the past.
Bolton has earned a reputation as a hawkish voice in Washington and a foreign policy hawk, but his critics have said his criticisms of certain policies made him unqualified to hold such a position.