Trump blasts 'Mr. Tough Guy' Bolton: 'He made some very big mistakes'
U.S. President Donald Trump blasted his former national security adviser John Bolton from the White House on Wednesday, saying he had been fired after making "some very big mistakes" and that he did not get along with others in the administration.
In a public rebuke of a top aide that would have been extraordinary before the Trump White House, Trump said Bolton had "set us back" and that the adviser had disagreed with the president on various national security issues, The Hill reports.
He slammed a mistake Bolton made early in his tenure at the White House when he discussed a "Libyan model" in the context of North Korea — which that country took as a sign that its leadership could meet the fate of former Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.
While he insisted he had gotten along with the adviser, he also ridiculed Bolton for getting the United States involved in the Iraq War.
“So, John is somebody that I actually got along with very well. He made some very big mistakes,” Trump said a day after his abrupt ousting of Bolton.
He said the "Libyan model" remark had set back talks with North Korea and was “not a good statement to make.”
“And it set us back, and frankly he wanted to do things — not necessarily tougher than me — You know John’s known as a tough guy. He’s so tough he got us into Iraq … but he’s actually somebody I had a very good relationship with. But he wasn’t getting along with people in the administration that I consider very important.”
Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un no longer wanted to work with Bolton after the Libya remark.
“As soon as he mentioned that, the Libyan model, what a disaster. Take a look at what happened to Gadhafi," Trump said. “I don’t blame Kim Jong Un for what he said after that. And he wanted nothing to do with John Bolton. And that's not a question of being tough. That’s a question of being not smart to say something like that.”
Trump later belittled Bolton as "Mr. Tough Guy."
“John wasn’t in line with what we were doing and actually in some cases he thought it was too tough what we were doing," he said. "Mr. Tough Guy, you know, you had to go into Iraq. Going into Iraq was something he felt very strongly about.”
Trump reiterated Wednesday that he would make an announcement on Bolton’s replacement next week, saying the White House has five candidates.