President Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton’s “tell all” book is to be released today over strong objections – and threats of prosecution – from the president. The picture Bolton paints of Trump in leaked excerpts is unflattering in the extreme – to the point of appearing almost petty. Was Bolton Trump’s biggest mistake? Also in today’s Ron Paul Liberty Report, why the CIA missed the Vault7 hack and… villain of the week!
Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.
Ron Paul’s observation that Trump hires who hates him, is interesting. Like an extreme ‘keep your friends close, your enemies closer’ followed as blind doctrine.
Bolton’s crude sabotage of Trump policies pale in comparison to Kudlow’s China trade war, Faucci and Brix’s COVID-19 response, and Mnuchin’s election economy.
Trump may hire swamp creatures to fire, but waits till the damage is done before firing them. Not all will fall openly into that kid of trap.
The idea that the office of President is unfit for a person is a good one; however, someone will be President.
It’s inaccurate to say that Trump knowingly hires people who hate him. His ego would not allow that. This is evidenced over and over again as he takes every form of criticism or rejection–no matter how formal, even from his own appointees to the SC–as some kind of personal slight. Trump said he’d hire “the best” people. Now, how do you do that when you know nothing about running a country or foreign policy and in fact the only things you have ever run are businesses–many of which failed? You hire your family members (even if nominally unpaid), your friends, people you’ve worked with, and sometimes you ask your staff or friends for advice, apparently.
It was the same thing with Sessions: he did the right thing as AG but as far as Trump was concerned, the man should have been more like his later (mentally delcining) consigliere, Giuliani. Trump made passive aggressive remarks against Sessions from then on till he finally fired him, as though he wanted to punish the man by publicly humiliating him first, which is consistent with his petty childishness. Giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, he simply “did not know” that his cabinet was accumulating swamp creatures such as Bolton. His aims may well have been antiwar (except for Iran) but he knew so little about foreign policy in general he could not possibly hire anyone of the same mindset–particularly when drawing from the ranks of others in the Republican Party’s circles, something even he should have known since he was the first Republican candidate to condemn Bush’s wars.
Basically, someone told him Bolton was good or tough on foreign policy and Trump probably liked the sound of that in terms of negotiation: that’s his style and that’s his brand, or it was (he seems to have given up on that). He likes to scare the other guy, fake him out: that’s how he treated the FTA, “we might have to tear it up if we don’t get what we want.” China: “Trades wars are great.” You can do this so many times before people learn to read you, as the North Koreans eventually did. He bluffed his way into a meeting Kim after threats but he had no idea what to do after the photo-op. The WH lied repeatedly about where negotiations were going and this made it look like the North Koreans were reneging on agreements. Bolton was all about the hardline across the board, which Trump lapped up with respect to Iran, which may be why Bolton lasted as long as he did with him. Sticks are useless withot carrots, though, and Bolton hates carrots the way Bush hated broccoli.
So to say Trump hired people who hate him on purpose is both giving him too much credit and partly a smear on all the former WH employees, from Scaramucci through Omarosa to “his generals” to Bolton. Some are awful people (Bolton is an extremist) or unlikely candidates for their positions (Omarosa, the head of the EPA, etc.) but that doesn’t mean they “hated” him when they were hired, when they were fired, or that they “hate” him now. I’m sure some do, or some did, but it’s irrelevant. Accusing opponents of “hating” Trump or Trumpian policies is a very strange but oft repeated trope on social media. I suppose it’s the only way they think they can counter left-wing accusations of racism, Islamaophobia, etc.
What is relevant is the substance of allegations and their credibility. Scaramucci is very credible not as a witness but as a commentator. He defended Trump for about two years despite having had to be let go, likely because it wasn’t about his competence or any personal conflict with Trump. He stopped defending Trump last summer as the weight of evidence of incompetence and/or corruption accumulated. Sure, the generals all have blood on their hands from past engagements, but aren’t you relieved that they don’t support Trump turning the army on peaceful protesters or even shooting at looters (as opposed to apprehending them)?
What I am getting at is we should not fall into the trap that Trump sets for all of us by buying into his perception that anyone who his against his policies is against him, or that any accusation of impropriety is invalid because it’s all about him. His accusers are a lot of things (Bolton is a boss from hell)–but they are big picture people whether you like their big picture or not. Those that are Republican party members have an interest in winning elections and are losing faith that Trump can win again, or else believe that the cost to the party–and perhaps the nation–as a whole is too great if he does. Most of these people are not petty enough to cut off their noses to spite their faces in a fit of pique. That’s Trump.
John Bolton was DIRECTOR of “THE PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY”, the mostly Israeli neocon group who neoconned the US along with “W” Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice into the disastrous middle east wars that only benefitted Israel and the US corporate war machine. The War on Terror was a response to 911. The wars were pre-planned and ready to go before the “new Pearl Harbor” false flag that happened right on schedule to justify them. For John Bolton to call anyone traitor is hypocrisy on a legendary scale.
Ron and Dan were very kind to Donald.
Bolton is a lyin’ sack of shit. I don’t like Trump for his ignorance in allowing this bastard and Abrams as well as Pompeo and Indian flapjack server into his administration.