Donald Trump Rips Into ‘Mr. Tough Guy’ John Bolton, Claims He Made ‘Big Mistakes’
Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he fired John Bolton because he made some “big mistakes” and “set us back.” According to The Hill, the president unloaded on his former national security adviser in a rant that is unprecedented prior to the Trump administration.
Trump told assembled reporters a day after announcing that he had fired Bolton that the former adviser had harmed the country and that while he got along with him, members of his administration didn’t, prompting the president to dismiss him.
“So, John is somebody that I actually got along with very well. He made some very big mistakes,” Trump said.
The president explained that he believed Bolton had set peace talks with North Korea back when he referenced the “Libyan model.”
At the time, North Korean leaders took the comment to mean that leaders in the country could face a similar situation as that of Muammar Gadhafi who was deposed as the leader of Libya and was killed during the resulting fallout.
“And it set us back, and frankly he wanted to do things — not necessarily tougher than me — You know John’s known as a tough guy. He’s so tough he got us into Iraq … but he’s actually somebody I had a very good relationship with. But he wasn’t getting along with people in the administration that I consider very important.”
Trump went on to say that he sympathized with Kim Jong Un’s reaction to Bolton’s comment and threw an insult at Bolton, calling him “Mr. Tough Guy.”
Trump explaining firing of John Bolton. "I don't blame Kim Jong-un for what he said after that. He wanted nothing to do with John Bolton." pic.twitter.com/d7Fvk9qwHn
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 11, 2019
As The Inquisitr previously reported, Bolton was fired by Trump on Tuesday because, as sources say, Bolton refused to defend Trump on the morning television political talk shows. Apparently, Bolton was scheduled to appear on a few shows on Sunday morning but backed out.
One source said that Trump “wanted someone to go on the Sunday talk shows to defend him, and he would say, ‘Why didn’t anyone go on and defend me?'”
The move was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back after Trump was reportedly already frustrated with Bolton’s disagreement over his choice to meet with leaders from the Taliban at Camp David.
It’s not the first time the president has attacked an individual after firing them. He blasted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, and former Defense Secretary James Mattis after they left. Trump is now on the search for the fourth national security adviser since taking office. Trump also recently fired his Homeland Security secretary and his director of national intelligence.
