‘Interesting’ first day for adviser Bolton
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is bracing for a possible strike in Syria. Preparations for a high-risk North Korea summit are barreling forward.
Enter John Bolton, the former U.N. ambassador who took over Monday as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser — the third person to hold the job in barely 14 months.
If Bolton had any first-day jitters, he had little time to indulge them. A daunting to-do list awaited him, punctuated over the weekend by a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syria’s government that led Trump to start exploring potential military retaliation.
Although Bolton didn’t formally start until Monday, he was spotted entering the White House over the weekend, carrying an umbrella as he strolled down the driveway toward the West Wing on a rainy Saturday.
And on Monday, he appeared at his first Cabinet meeting, where Trump talked up his forthcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, chided China for taking advantage of the United States and condemned the “atrocious” chemical attack in Syria. Bolton didn’t speak but was seated prominently behind Trump.
“I think he’s going to be a fantastic representative of our team,” Trump said later in the day. He pointed out the fact that Bolton was starting in the midst of an urgent situation with Syria, adding: “Interesting day.”
Although it’s unclear whether Bolton will “clean house,” two U.S officials and two outside advisers to the administration said the White House has been considering a significant staff shake-up in the part of the National Security Council that handlesthemiddleeast.