” I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning, “Trump tweeted. “I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week,” he added.
The tweet came just one hour after the White House press office said Bolton was scheduled to appear at a Tuesday press briefing alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Bolton tweeted minutes after Trump’s announcement, “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow. ”
Bolton reiterated the point that it was he who offered to resign on Fox News Tuesday.
Bolton’s ouster was so sudden that the now-former National Security Adviser even led a meeting of top administration officials, known as a principals committee meeting, Tuesday morning prior to Trump’s tweet, a source familiar told CNN.
The source said the meeting went on as planned and there was no indication that Bolton’s firing was imminent.
Trump was irked by reports that he had faced internal pushback from Bolton over his decision to host leaders of the Taliban at Camp David, multiple people familiar with his frustration say. The President announced the plans for the meeting were canceled on Saturday.
Bolton and Trump got into a heated argument Monday night over the President’s plan to host Taliban leaders at Camp David and did not back down, two people familiar with what happened said.
One of the factors that prompted Trump to fire Bolton was the concern inside the White House that Bolton’s aides were making it sound as though Vice President Mike Pence had opposed the Taliban meeting at Camp David, according to two senior administration officials. One official pointed to Pence’s tweet saying he would have supported such a move.
Writing on the wall
CNN reported last week that tensions between top figures on Trump’s national security team had devolvedinto all-out hostility, creating a deep disconnect between staffers on the National Security Council, led by Bolton, and the rest of the administration, six people familiar with the matter said.
Bolton was initially brought into the administration last year to replace HR McMaster partly due to his hawkish position on Iran – supporting Trump’s exit from the Iran nuclear deal – but he soon began to clash with the President’s vision for diplomacy in North Korea and most recently on Afghanistan.
The campaign by Trump allies to push Bolton out of the administration had ramped up in recent weeks, multiple sources told CNN.
The President had received multiple phone calls and appeals to replace Bolton with someone who agreed with him more and was willing to follow through with his decisions when he didn’t. This was something Trump heard since he hired Bolton – but people noticed the President’s frustration with him was growing in recent weeks so they upped the pressure.
A senior administration official echoed that sentiment, telling CNN that Trump has been getting more and more irritated with Bolton over the past several months for his statements on Iran, Venezuela and now Afghanistan.
Trump no longer believed Bolton could advocate for the President’s agenda, and instead felt he was harming his credibility, the official said.
Trump also felt like Bolton wasn’t a forceful enough advocate for him in the media – and that when he did make appearances, he wasn ‘ t convincing enough, since it was evident he didn’t believe in some of Trump’s foreign policy goals, the source t.
Some West Wing officials in recent weeks began to get the sense Bolton’s days were numbered based on his clashes with other officials in the administration and differing views on key issues.
Those involved in national security discussions took notice that Bolton was “going through a tough time” as one source put it. Aides were waiting to see if he could weather the storm as he had in the past which clearly didn’t happen this time around.
Officials learned of firing from Trump’s tweet
A senior administration official told CNN that White House and national security officials learned about Bolton’s firing from Trump’s tweet. The official described aides as frantically trying to figure things out following the tweet.
Specifically, officials at the National Security Council are now wondering about the future of their organization after Bolton’s abrupt firing.
When he arrived in March 2018, Bolton brought with him several officials to fill key roles – and the fate of those officials isn’t clear.
As staffers detailed to the NSC phased out, Bolton worked to replace them with people he’d worked with previously and he considered loyal to him. His goal was to have senior leaders in place that were “his people” as the 2020 election season
If those officials depart en masse, the NSC will be majorly depleted, so it’s not expected they will all follow Bolton out the door.
But there is uncertainty today about what happens next.
Mixed reaction
Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney called his departure a “huge loss” for the Trump administration and said he was “very unhappy” to learn Bolton was leaving.
“The loss of John Bolton as a senior leader in foreign policy is an extraordinary loss for our nation and for the White House, “Romney told reporters, adding that he was an important voice in the room because he would take a different view.
But fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul praised the firing of John Bolton, predicting that his removal made the threat of war with Iran or other adversaries less likely.
“I think that the President deserves to have someone around him who agrees with his policy.I think the threat of war worldwide goes down exponentially with John Bolton out of the White House, “Paul told reporters.
” I think his advocacy for regime change around the world is a naive world view.And I think that the world will be a much better place with new advisors to the president and hopefully somebody who’s actually listening what to the president says over and over again, that he wants to bring America’s longest war to a close, “
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that Bolton served the country well but the President “deserves a national security adviser he has confidence in.”
Graham didn’t say explicitly that he had a heads up but also suggested the Taliban meeting contributed to his dismissal.
“I think Bolton served the country well. He gave the president his honest opinion and it’s time for him to move on,” Graham said.
Asked if he had a heads up Bolton would be fired, Graham said: “I know there were some concerns about the whole Taliban meeting, but I didn’t know for sure.”
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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