Is U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton Living His Dream?

White House national Security Advisor John Bolton listens as U.S. President Donald Trump holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, U.S., August 16, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Elise Labott, Politico: John Bolton Is Living His Dream

President Trump’s national security adviser has been portrayed as a dangerous bully on the world stage. But now, he finds himself in an unusual role: adult in the room.

In mid-January, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, took a call from the boss.

“Did you see the tweet?” the president asked Bolton.

A few minutes earlier, Trump had casually threatened to “devastate Turkey economically” should it defy his warnings not to attack Kurdish fighters in Syria allied with the United States. Bolton saw the tweet before taking the call, though he didn’t know it was coming.

Normally a threat against a NATO ally by an American president would rattle any top White House aide. But for Bolton it meant vindication. He had just returned from a tumultuous trip to Turkey, during which he stood accused of losing Turkish cooperation against ISIS and undermining Trump’s plans for a troop withdrawal from Syria. Some foreign policy pundits were even murmuring that Trump’s third national security adviser might not even reach the one-year mark of his tenure, a familiar parlor game in Washington in the Trump era.

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WNU Editor: I personally think John Bolton's influence is over-rated. He may be the one with the fancy title, and access to the President, but he is still one adviser among many.