President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser offered up a brutal conclusion on the impact of the president’s frenzied comments over his war with Iran.
John Bolton, who served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush and as national security adviser during Trump’s first term, told CNN’s Jessica Dean on Sunday that Iranian negotiators can probably “smell panic” in the White House.
Bolton explained to Dean that the president’s countless frantic Truth Social posts have allowed Iran to see just how badly Trump wants out of the war.
“I think they smell panic in the White House,” Bolton said. “I think they can see Trump wants out of this. He‘s just he‘s broadcasting it almost every day. And it gives the Iranians enormous leverage they shouldn‘t have.”
Bolton also argued that the president is not making geostrategic decisions but rather domestic political ones, with the upcoming midterms in mind.
“A large part of this is his fault,” Bolton said of Trump’s abysmal polling following his attack on Iran in February. “He made no effort whatever in the weeks and months before the attack to build the case for whatever his objectives were.”
“We still don‘t know what his objectives were,” Bolton added. “I think the proper objective is regime change. But whatever he was after, he didn‘t bother to tell anybody until 2.30 in the morning on February the 28th, after the attacks had begun. That‘s not how you do it. That‘s just Politics 101, domestically.”
“For whatever reason, he didn‘t bother to do it. Now he can see the consequences.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
The president has claimed a number of objectives for attacking Iran, including implementing regime change, seizing control of the country’s nuclear stockpile, or as a pre-emptive strike ahead of a potential Iranian attack on the U.S.
His approval rating has suffered dramatically, falling to its lowest point in response to the conflict with Iran.
Discussing the decision to send Vice President JD Vance to Pakistan to handle negotiations with Iran, Bolton said that it was a mistake.
“You shouldn‘t send the vice president,” Bolton told Dean. “He‘s one level below the president. We don‘t know that the people the Iranians are sending have any authority to commit their government to begin with.”
“If we were going to send a high-level official, it should have been the secretary of state, not the vice president and not civilian volunteers,” he added, referring to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who will be joining Vance when he returns to Pakistan for another round of attempted negotiations this week.
Bolton has previously warned that Trump’s war with Iran threatens to expose him as a leader who is out of his depth in the war room.
Speaking to The Daily Beast Podcast, Bolton who also served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, said of Trump, “He’s the only president I’ve seen who felt uncomfortable in the Situation Room.”
“It was a different experience than I’ve seen with any other American president, both the decisions that I participated in at lower levels in the government as I worked my way through the chairs,” Bolton told host Joanna Coles. “And I think it’s a problem.”
“I think it was because there were a lot of people in the room who knew a lot more about what we were talking about than he did.”
