Former national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday comparing the time President Donald Trump spends listening to cable TV and his own government advisers would be “a very interesting statistic.”
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Bolton lamented the president’s thinking was so influenced by television.
“I think it's a combination of television and listening to people outside the government that he trusts for one reason or another,” he said in answer to who helps shape Trump’s thinking more — TV or advisers.
“I think that if you could clock the amount of time he spent actually in the Oval Office versus the amount of time he spends in the little dining room off the Oval Office with the cable news networks of one form or another on, it would be a very interesting statistic,” he said.
Bolton also defended his April 2018 comment that the United States was pursuing the “Libya model” for North Korea — a remark Trump has blasted as “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen on television.”
“You know, I don't think I could be clearer in talking about the Libya model of 2003, 2004,” he said. “We had a clear strategic decision from Muammar Gadhafi to give up Libya's nuclear weapons program. We have never gotten that from North Korea.
“So the fact that seven or eight years later, in the midst of the Arab Spring, Gadhafi was overthrown nobody predicted in 2003, 2004. I'll stand by my comment.
“One day the president will learn a little history and he'd be better off for it.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.