Our view: Belatedly, John Bolton tells all
To Donald Trump’s harshest critics — indeed to much of the nation — the president’s ongoing support from a devoted base is bewildering.
Why, for instance, would evangelicals fawn over a man who so epitomizes immorality? What do defense hawks see in a president who cozies up to America’s adversaries and antagonizes its allies? And how can the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan stand by a president so intent on undoing their legacies?
The new book by Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, to be released today, should force at least some of Trump’s backers to reconsider a thing or two about the president they have praised so lavishly.
Democrats have long loathed Bolton for his hawkish positions, especially his support for the 2003 Iraq invasion that turned into a foreign policy debacle. Their opinion of him dropped even further when he chose to save his revelations for a lucrative book contract, rather than to testify in the House impeachment hearings.
It is easy to be cynical about Bolton, who should have told Congress what he knew about the Ukraine shakedown and other presidential misdeeds. But the fact that he is so disliked by Democrats and occupies a space on the GOP’s right wing only makes his withering critique of the president more potent.
His book paints a picture of an erratic president who lacks core competencies needed for the job and is perfectly willing to put his personal political advantage above the interests of the United States.
Trump bills himself as the first president to get tough on China. But Bolton discloses that Trump was more eager to cut a deal with China than many on his staff; the book even says that the president asked Xi Jingping to enhance his political standing among farmers by buying more American grain.
Bolton, who writes that obstruction of justice was a way of life in the Trump White House, also asserts Trump told Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan he would replace the U.S. attorney in New York who was investigating whether a Turkish bank had violated sanctions on Iran.
That federal prosecutor, Geoffrey Berman, was indeed fired unceremoniously and without explanation over the weekend.
It remains unclear, however, whether the bank investigation played any role in the clumsily executed ouster.
By itself, Bolton’s book probably would not be a watershed moment. Socalled kiss-and-tell tomes rarely are. But “The Room Where it Happened” comes on top of so much more.
These include Trump’s abuses of office uncovered in the impeachment investigation, his inflammatory reaction to anti-racism protests, his bungling of the coronavirus response and his eroding poll numbers.
Bolton’s “bombshells” shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Even so, perhaps this latest addition to the mountain of evidence about the president’s unfitness for office will be a last straw for some of his backers.
If that happens, Bolton will have belatedly performed a public service, even as he serves his own financial interests.