Former national security adviser John Bolton sparred with late-night host Stephen Colbert after the latter called the ex-Trump administration official "naive."
Bolton was on "The Late Show" Tuesday night to talk about his book, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir" and got into a debate of why he joined the Trump administration in the first place.
"My rule is, everything you think about Donald Trump is probably true, because he's not deep enough to get your socks wet in," Colbert said. "He's incredibly readable. That's why when he ran casinos, the house lost. There's nothing to learn about him. That's why he's essentially a boring person. How did you not know beforehand that he was just callow?"
"Because I couldn't believe it was that bad," Bolton replied.
Colbert interjected and said, "But you're a national negotiator, how could you be naive? You've dealt with the worst people in the world."
Bolton cracked a smile and appeared to jokingly say, "You've really insulted me now by calling me naive. Look, I thought it was possible to work with somebody. I thought surely they would want to learn about the complexities of arms control negotiations and that sort of thing, and as I detail in the book, that turned out not to be true."
Among Bolton's past government positions was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a job he held during the presidency of George W. Bush.
Bolton's book paints a poor picture of Trump, his actions, and how he runs the country. The White House tried to block its publication, but was unsuccessful.
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