John Bolton’s Sour Grapes

Specttator ^ | June 18th | GEORGE NEUMAYR

[RandFan]

Bolton, the cold bureaucrat of the D.C. war machine, was prepared to kill innocent people. Trump wasn’t. Yet we’re told that it is Trump who is corrupt and unpresidential? That doesn’t make any sense. Nor does Bolton’s claim that every decision Trump made “was driven” by reelection considerations make any sense. Trump, if anything, never hesitates to place unpopular truth-telling over political optics. All Bolton’s lame complaining amounts to is that if you agree with Bolton, you are “principled”; if you disagree with him, you are “political.”

But what did Bolton expect? Had he not followed the campaign? Trump repeatedly promised to keep America “out of stupid wars,” the very wars Bolton tried so hard to justify. One can fault Trump for hiring Bolton, but not for ignoring him. That deserves praise. Trump has kept his promise and pursued a sensible foreign policy.

Bolton’s criticism of Trump sounds reminiscent of the criticism of Reagan aides who thought they were so much smarter than Reagan and found Reagan’s power perplexing. But that kind of criticism is just the befuddlement and bitterness of the bureaucrat over the natural leader. Could Bolton start a movement like Trump? Could he command rallies of tens of thousands? Bolton’s sour-grapes memoir testifies not to his power and acumen but to his impotence.

[Glad2bnuts]

What the news is reporting are leaks. As far as I know, they hold the same gravitas as reports that POTUS and Putin got together to fix an election. Who knows what is in the book? Who can say what is truth and what is sour grapes?

[jarwulf]

Whatever you think of them its strange how Trump has a habit of picking people or letting people be picked who turn on him. At the very least it doesn’t seem like he is a very good judge of character.

[seawolf101]

This is his big chance at making a lot of money. The only way it was going to happen was by siding with the fake media and go out against Trump.

[Joe Boucher]

Hey John,
You are garbage pal.
Don’t get caught in a rip tide around the Fort Pierce Inlet.
Cause i’d let you perish ya Dick.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this reality instead of the normal Mediot bs!

[Chickensoup]

No this is his chance to cash in. Book deals is how. The left provides payola

[coaster123]

“Trump ... doesn’t seem like he is a very good judge of character.”

Do you run a business? Hire and maintain a workforce?

[Zhang Fei]

[Whatever you think of them its strange how Trump has a habit of picking people or letting people be picked who turn on him. At the very least it doesn’t seem like he is a very good judge of character.]

---

It’s not a judgment issue. Trump treats the help like used Kleenexes. These are men of substance who were men of substance long before they ever heard of Trump the politician. Bolton has had all kinds of disagreements with various pols. This is his first tell-all book.

Trump could have let the guy down gently by thanking him for his help and wishing him the best. Instead, he did something straight out of “The Apprentice”, saying “you’re fired”. So Bolton came right back at him. You make things personal with your employees, they might get personal right back at you. There’s a reason most dismissals tend to be couched in very neutral-sounding terms - nobody wants a disgruntled employee coming back with an arsenal and a backpack full of ammo.

Trump is who he is, warts and all. Our problem is that a sober guy like Mitt Romney is a stuffed shirt Judas who marches with Black Lives Matter and a major league gun grabber. Trump has charisma to spare, but also alienates a whole bunch of people who don’t like the drama or the presentation. At the same time, he is the only guy who’s prepared to stick his neck out on the cultural issues, such as statue removal. So we take the good with the bad, because Trump is the best option we have.

I’m not disappointed - politics mirrors life - you never get *everything* you want, even when the choice is in significant measure yours, such as a major appliance purchase or your career path. Why would we expect perfect outcomes when we are literally one out of thousands or tens of millions of votes?

[Alberta's Child]

President Trump knew exactly what Bolton was all about before he hired him. In fact, at first glance it made no sense for him to hire a dope who would have likely been a prominent figure in a Jeb Bush administration.

This is what got me thinking more about it, and I've got a different perspective on it now. If even half the things Bolton claims in these book excerpts are true, I’m now starting to think Trump hired him just to spend 18 months jerking his chain and making him look like a jackass. Seriously. LOL.

[Alberta's Child]

You’re forgetting an important point here: It was pretty much understood that John Bolton was the source of many leaks to the media while he was part of this administration. He was always an arrogant, pernicious asshole, and this “tell-all” book is an indication to me that first time in his life, he met his match.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Never should have hired Bolton.

[yldstrk]

Bolton is twisted

[Lurkinanloomin]

So we take the good with the bad, because Trump is the best option we have.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trump was the ONLY option that was going to even try to stop the illegal alien inundation.

[pepsi_junkie]

I suspect that in the case of Bolton he wanted someone to challenge his view, not be a yes man. Bolton's take on foreign policy has never been a mystery and Trump surely knew what it was, so I presumed he wanted someone who cou;d / would make the case for intervention as a sort of devil's advocate so Trump didn't could make decision after hearing both sides presented. The problem seems to be that once Trump decided Bolton wouldn't accept the decision and tried to undermine it. So he got canned.

Other dumb ideas like Omarosa are just inexplicable though.

[Zhang Fei]

[You’re forgetting an important point here: It was pretty much understood that John Bolton was the source of many leaks to the media while he was part of this administration. He was always an arrogant, pernicious asshole, and this “tell-all” book is an indication to me that first time in his life, he met his match.]

---

Leaks are how political operatives get the people they work for to listen to what they’re saying, under pressure from public opinion. I doubt Bolton was alone in leaking to get his policy views on the front burner. My issue with him is that he has chosen a pivotal moment to sabotage this administration, one that has substantially increased defense spending, and funded new weapons systems.

The election is on a razor’s edge, and he chose this precise moment to throw stink bombs at the GOP, at a time when arsonists and looters are ruling the roost in the big cities. Bolton has let his ego get the better of him, and even the people who largely agree with him are gonna hate his guts for a while. Especially if Trump goes down to defeat in November. Bolton’s a big picture guy who can’t see the big picture, from a political standpoint.

[attiladhun2]

Bolton, warmonger extraordinaire. Chicken hawk who wanted war with the following countries: Libya. Iran, N. Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, etc. A punk and treacherous Walrus who swaggers and talks sh!t, but will only shed other people’s blood. Shed your own blood Bolton, and stop putting America’s young folks in harm’s way for some kind of perverse vicarious glory you think you will receive. You are a dishonorable gobshite.

[RandFan]

The media love him as they’re also pro-war.

Bolton’s chief criticism is that Trump wouldn’t go to war with various countries and is therefore unfit for office. The media are agreeing him with and giving him tremendous coverage but Trump’s foreign policy is more in sync with the public.

[Newbomb Turk]

Hey if the DOJ had any cajones they would arrest Bolton for releasing classified information on the day the book is released. 5 AM swat raid and TV cameras rolling.

[robowombat]

Bolton has wanted hostilities that he would call a war with Iran for a long time. Hostilities that would tie up lots of US forces in the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf and Kuwait. These operations would require massive ‘civil augmentation’ from a host of connected contractors. US forces would patrol the seas and skies and bomb anti aircraft or SAM sites and raid the occasional off shore oil platform but carefully refrain from conducting any meaningful actions , such as seizing Kharg Island or at least bombing it into a huge bonfire. No what Bolton seeks is an endless and pointless Orwellian conflict environment in which the donoracracy reaps the profits, a flock of uniformed bureaucrats get promotions and decorations and a steady toll of US casualties occurs.