US President Donald Trump fired John Bolton on Tuesday, saying he disagreed strongly with many of his national security advisor’s views.Bolton denied being fired and said he had offered to resign. His ouster was a shocker to many in the White House.
While Bolton disagreed with Trump on most foreign policy matters, his strong position against peace talks with the Taliban at Camp David, which the President scrapped on Sunday, could have been the tipping point, analysts believe.
Bolton, who has been part of Republican administrations since Ronald Reagan was the country’s president, is known for his hawkish views and vociferously supported the 2003 Iraq invasion when he was the American ambassador to the UN under George W Bush.
His ouster means that Trump would continue with his isolationist ‘America First’ policy. Bolton’s interventionist suggestions in Venezuela and elsewhere gave him the image of a warmonger.Bolton also advised Trump against a whirlwind rapprochement with North Korea, who did not listen to him. This drew the ire of Pyongyang, which was careful enough to flatter Trump but criticised Bolton as ‘a defective human product’ and worse.
Opposed Pompeo on Taliban peace talks
While Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his chief negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad favoured a deal with the Taliban, Bolton, Lindsey Graham and retired generals Jack Keane and David Petraeus were against it