MARKED MAN

Bolton Says ‘Putin Thinks He Can Play Trump Like a Fiddle’

The former national security adviser says the Russian president knows “he’s not faced with a serious adversary.”

John Bolton, the former national security adviser, believes that Vladimir Putin can’t believe his luck that he only has to deal with President Trump in the White House. “I think Putin thinks he can play [Trump] like a fiddle,” Bolton told ABC News. “I think Putin is smart, tough. He plays a bad hand extremely well. And I think he sees he’s not faced with a serious adversary here.” Bolton’s interview was broadcast Wednesday night after excerpts from his new book painted Trump as a “stunningly uninformed” president who begged Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him get re-elected. He went on to tell ABC News: “When you’re dealing with somebody like Putin, who has made his life understanding Russia’s strategic position in the world, against Donald Trump, who doesn’t enjoy reading about these issues or learning about them, it’s a very difficult position for America to be in.” Bolton also claimed that Trump was “marked” by Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi as a man who was easy to flatter and manipulate.