John Bolton Rips Trump Over Taliban, Iran, North Korea Days After Being Fired

John Bolton slammed President Donald Trump’s foreign policy just days after he was ousted as Trump’s national security adviser.

Speaking at a private event held by the conservative think tank the Gatestone Institute, Bolton repeatedly hammered Trump’s moves on the international stage, attendees told Politico.

Bolton said that Trump inviting the Taliban to Camp David ahead of the 9/11 anniversary sent a “terrible signal” and was “disrespectful” to the victims of the September 11 attacks.

Bolton also threw shade on Trump’s negotiations with Iran and North Korea, saying both efforts were “doomed to fail.”

Bolton said that Trump’s failure to respond to Iran shooting down a US drone earlier this summer led to the rogue nation ramping up its aggressiveness, suggesting a military response could have prevented Iran’s alleged attack on a Saudi oil field.

After the attack, Trump was set to respond militarily to the drone attack but changed his mind after Fox News host Tucker Carlson and others warned him against it, Politico reported.

Bolton told attendees Wednesday that the White House was set to execute a retaliatory strike but “a high authority, at the very last minute," without telling anyone, decided not to do it.

Trump fires back at Bolton:

Bolton’s remarks came on the same day that Trump introduced US hostage negotiator Robert O’Brien as his fourth national security adviser in three years. Vowing that the two have “good chemistry,” Trump fired back at criticism from Bolton.

“Well, I was critical of John Bolton for getting us involved with a lot of other people in the Middle East,” he told reporters Wednesday. “We’ve spent $7.5 trillion in the Middle East and you ought to ask a lot of people about that.“

“John was not able to work with anybody, and a lot of people disagreed with his ideas,” Trump added. “A lot of people were very critical that I brought him on in the first place because of the fact that he was so in favor of going into the Middle East, and he got stuck in quicksand and we became policemen for the Middle East. It’s ridiculous.“

 

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