Former national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday described President Donald Trump as a "stunningly uninformed” leader who makes "erratic" and "irrational" decisions and is easily exploited by Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
"I hope [history] will remember him as a one-term president who didn't plunge the country irretrievably into a downward spiral we can't recall from,” Bolton said during an appearance on ABC News.
“We can get over one term — I have absolute confidence, even if it's not the miracle of a conservative Republican being elected in November. Two terms, I'm more troubled about."
The Trump administration has sued to stop Bolton's book, "The Room Where it Happened," which is set to come out on June 23, on claims that he's releasing classified information in it. Bolton's book alleges that Trump sought China’s help in winning reelection in 2020 by ending a trade war and encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to build concentration camps for Uighur Muslims in western China.
Bolton also suggested Trump didn’t read his intelligence briefings.
“My experience was he very rarely read much,” Bolton said. “The intelligence briefings took place perhaps once or twice a week.”
When Martha Raddatz asked Bolton whether it was out of the ordinary for the briefing to take place so infrequently, Bolton replied: “It’s very unusual. They should take place every day. The president should read extensively the material he’s given. It’s not clear to me that he read much of anything.”
Raddatz followed up by asking, “The president has referred to himself as a stable genius — is that what you saw?”
“How can anybody call himself a stable genius?” Bolton said. “He did say it a couple times when I was in his presence. And I just didn’t react to him.”
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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