Former national security adviser John Bolton shared his concerns with Attorney General William Barr that Trump was doing personal favors for dictators.
John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser, privately told Attorney General William P. Barr last year that he had concerns that President Trump was effectively granting personal favors to the autocratic leaders of Turkey and China, according to an unpublished manuscript by Mr. Bolton.
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Mr. Bolton’s account underscores the fact that the unease about Mr. Trump’s seeming embrace of authoritarian leaders, long expressed by experts and his opponents, also existed among some of the senior cabinet officers entrusted by the president to carry out his foreign policy and national security agendas.
The concern that Trump is doing personal favors for dictators is bolstered by Trump’s behavior. The president has lifted sanctions on Chinese company ZTE, and his withdrawal of US troops from Syria was done at the request of Turkey’s Erdogan. Bolton has also expressed a belief that Trump’s policy toward Turkey is being motivated by his business interests there.
Trump holds phone calls with foreign leaders in the private residence on his cell phone where his staff are not around. The president also does not release details or accurate readouts of his phone calls with foreign leaders.
Even people inside his administration believed that Donald Trump was doing favors for dictators.
If Bolton’s suspicions prove to be true, the current articles of impeachment are only the beginning of Trump’s problems.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
