“I think Trump will choose someone who is going to facilitate him, not someone who is going to stand up to him,” said Thomas Wright, a scholar with the Brookings Institution who has studied the National Security Council. National security experts say whomever Trump picks to permanently replace Bolton will indicate whether the president values honest brokers of varying foreign-policy ideas or simply yes-men to enable his instincts. Biegun is perceived as close to Pompeo, and his appointment as national security advisor would further cement Pompeo’s role as Trump’s key lieutenant on foreign-policy issues. 2 senior official at the State Department. Biegun’s name has recently been in the mix to take over as the No. envoy to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, and Doug MacGregor, a retired U.S. Among the names mentioned as possible permanent replacements are the current U.S. With Bolton ousted, Charles Kupperman, his deputy, will take over as acting national security advisor. When asked if he was blindsided by Trump’s announcement, Pompeo smiled and dismissed the question: “I’m never surprised.” Just hours before the announcement, Bolton had been slated to conduct a briefing alongside Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Pompeo on sanctions Tuesday. The timing of Bolton’s firing appeared to catch members of the Trump administration by surprise. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Pompeo said Bolton was asked to resign Monday night. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters that Bolton’s “priorities and policies just don’t line up with the president.” White House officials made no attempt to back up Bolton’s version of events and said Bolton and Trump had grown apart on a number of issues. In a tweet on Tuesday after Trump announced his firing, Bolton asserted his departure was on his own initiative and appeared to have been caught off guard by the president’s announcement: “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow.’”Īfter Trump announced Bolton’s departure on Tuesday and the media described it as a firing, Bolton began texting reporters to tell them that he resigned and wasn’t fired. McMaster, resigned after just over a year in office following internal clashes with the president and other advisors over foreign-policy decisions. Trump’s first national security advisor, Michael Flynn, lasted less than a month before resigning amid scandal for misleading the FBI and vice president about his contacts with Russian diplomats. troops to begin withdrawing from the 18-year conflict, pushed for the meeting.īolton took on the job in April 2018 and was Trump’s longest-serving national security advisor in a White House famous for constant hirings and firings. But Pompeo, eager to clinch a deal that would pave the way for thousands of U.S. Bolton had been opposed to the meeting, the planning for which exposed deep divisions in the president’s national security team.īolton and defense officials argued that inviting “a designated terrorist organization” to Camp David would “set a terrible precedent,” one senior administration official told Foreign Policy. Trump abruptly canceled the meeting after a Taliban attack in Kabul. While the exact circumstances of Bolton’s firing remained unclear on Tuesday, it comes immediately on the heels of the collapse of peace talks with the Taliban, who had been invited to a meeting with Trump at Camp David. Senate seat in Kansas, and senior State Department officials concede that the United States has ceded influence to rivals like China in part because of the turmoil in leadership. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has flirted with running for the open U.S. The latest high-profile departure from a White House in chaos promises to further destabilize a foreign-policy team in disarray, just ahead of the big United Nations General Assembly in New York. power, Bolton was opposed to Trump’s diplomatic opening with North Korea, his effort to find a negotiated solution to the war in Afghanistan, and Trump’s repeated overtures to the leaders of Iran to meet. An uber-conservative advocate of the unilateral application of U.S. “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration.”īolton’s firing-though he said he offered his resignation Monday night-comes as he has found himself on the losing end of a series of foreign-policy debates. President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired National Security Advisor John Bolton via Twitter, ending a turbulent 17-month run in the White House for the hawkish security advisor during which he grew increasingly isolated and on the losing end of key policy debates.īolton’s “services are no longer needed at the White House,” Trump said in his tweets.
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