John Bolton, who served as National Security Adviser under former President Donald Trump and was previously the interim U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has a long history in government, including roles during the Reagan and Bush administrations.
In his 2020 memoir, The Room Where It Happened, Bolton drew a sharp critique of Trump’s presidency. Recent U.S. elections have been marred by assassination attempts against Republican candidate Donald Trump, with threats also extending to others. Bolton himself has been targeted in an assassination plot linked to Iran.
Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia has become a central issue in the lead-up to the elections. If Donald Trump were to return to power, could he successfully mediate a peace deal between the two nations? Moreover, who is better equipped to handle America’s foreign policy challenges—Kamala Harris or Donald Trump?
In an exclusive conversation with Megha Sharma, Executive Editor, NewsX, John Bolton spilled the beans about US elections and what does he feel about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris battle for the coveted presidential post. Here are the excerpts:
John Bolton On Donald Trump s Intent Towards Initiating Negotiating Peace Deal Between Ukraine And Russia | NewsX Exclusive
When asked about the US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s intent towards initiating negotiating a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia and it resonated with the average American voter, John Bolton told NewsX, “It’s hard to say. Certainly, foreign policy has not played a major role in the campaign to date, and there’s only a little bit more than a month to go. Trump has said a number of things about Ukraine, uh, and how to end the conflict, most of which I think are very negative from Ukraine’s point of view.
Bolton continued, “Trump has said he would get President Zelensky and President Putin in a room together and resolve the conflict in 24 hours. Well, that’s not going to happen, that’s for sure, uh, and I think the result would be that Trump would blame that failure, of course not on himself but blame it on Zelensky, and it would come out very much in Russia’s favor.”
John Bolton On Being Target Of An Assassination Plot By The Iranians
When asked to share his opinion on why he became the target of an assassination plot by the Iranians, John Bolton told NewsX, “Well, I think there are a number of Americans who are targets, beginning with former President Trump and covering others like former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, former Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, uh, and I think, as is indicated in the criminal charging documents filed two years ago in my case against an officer of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, uh, it’s Iran’s effort to get retribution for the killing of Qasem Soleimani in 2020.”
Bolton added, “He was then the head of the Revolutionary Guard so-called Quds Force, and a major terrorist figure in the Middle East. So that threat, which has been manifested recently against President Trump with the arrest of a Pakistani national, uh, a couple of weeks ago, shows, I think, that Iran’s efforts to, uh, to respond to the killing of Soleimani continue.”
John Bolton On Repeated Assassination Bids On Donald Trump
When asked whether Donald Trump might get sympathy votes due to repeated assassination bids on him, John Bolton agreed and said, “Yes, I think the two attacks in the United States that actually the one that was nearly successful in Pennsylvania and then the other in Florida that was foiled by the Secret Service, I think are probably—we will conclude—attributed to emotionally disturbed people. I don’t see yet the evidence of an ideological motivation. I don’t see any evidence yet of foreign involvement, specifically Iranian foreign involvement, I think that this is a case of unfortunately not being able to identify these potential threats before they become as manifest as they have.”
“I Don’t Think Trump Really Has A Clue What He Would Do As President”
Talking about foreign policy and the Middle Eastern conflict, John Bolton was questioned if he thinks Donald Trump has what it takes to navigate America, particularly the conflict between Israel and Hamas and now Hezbollah? To this, he told NewsX, “I don’t think Trump really has a clue what he would do as president. What he says is if I had been elected president in 2020, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine, this war in the Middle East would not have broken out—which is a typical Trump statement. It’s neither provable nor disprovable. Nobody can possibly know what would have happened.”
Bolton continued, “But here I think what’s really at issue is an Iranian war against Israel using its terrorist proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, the Shia militia groups, in Iraq and Syria—and back in April its own conventional forces, its own rocket and drone forces. I think this is part of what’s called Iran’s Ring of Fire strategy against Israel. It’s not working out very well for Iran at the moment. We’ll see what happens.”
He concluded on the topic saying, “But I think this is way over Trump’s head. I don’t think this is one of the reasons I don’t think that he’s fit to be president, is I don’t think he has any concept what to do in this kind of crisis environment.”
John Bolton Claims Kamala Harris Will Pursue Biden’s Policies
John Bolton also shed light on his views on Democrat candidate Kamala Harris’s foreign policy on Israel and on Ukraine if she were to come to power. He told NewsX, “She has very little national security experience. She has presumably sat in almost all the National Security Council meetings that took place during the Biden administration, and my guess, because of that immersion in Biden administration policy, that, if she were to win in November and take office in January, that for a considerable period of time—a year, perhaps—her policies would look very much like the Biden administration because that is the way she’s been molded over these past three and a half years.”
Bolton also told NewsX, “But she will also get her own team of advisors in key national security positions. Events in the outside world will affect what her priorities are, and over time it will begin to change. But at the beginning, for a good period of time, I think she will pursue Biden’s policies—not that I’m saying I agree with those policies, but I think the best prediction for Harris is continuity with Biden for a year, 15 months, something like that.”
“I’m Not Going To Vote For Either One Of Them”
When asked to choose between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on who is better equipped to handle global issues and issues that matter to the United States domestically as the president of the U.S., John Bolton revealed, “I’m not going to vote for either one of them because I don’t think either one is qualified to be president. I’m not in a very happy position; obviously, I’m quite worried about what this means for the United States in the next four years.”
He added, “They have different failings in my view. Trump, as I laid out in my book, just doesn’t understand what goes on in international relations. He has very limited knowledge of the wider world and sees everything through this unique perspective of a man who has no philosophy, doesn’t do policy in the way we normally understand that term, who is transactional, ad hoc, episodic, and focuses primarily on what outcome in any given context would benefit Donald Trump. I think it’s dangerous for America.”
Bolton then spoke about Kamala Harris saying she has “very little practical experience in national security. Now, you know, a presidency has a way of sharpening somebody’s attention span, often very fast, but she still has a lot to learn.”
Harris Vs Trump: John Bolton Opens Up About Opinion Polls And Surveys
When asked how does he assess the figures and numbers of various opinion polls and surveys, John Bolton told NewsX, “The polls at the moment show a race that’s simply too close to call, and that assumes the polls are correct, which is an open subject these days. In the past several elections, many have been really very badly mistaken. But I think that directionally, the case remains that it is a very divided country, and I think the ultimate outcome of the presidential election, which nobody can predict with confidence at this point, will be very close again, as it was in 2020 and as it was in 2016.”
He added, “So, with a few months to go, developments that no one can predict can have an outcome. We’ve just experienced a pretty severe hurricane—Hurricane Helene—that affects particular states like Georgia and North Carolina, both swing states where there were heavy, heavy rains and flooding that obviously will affect people. So, at this point, we don’t know what will happen in the next 35 days, and that kind of event could obviously swing the election.”
Check the full interview here:
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