John Bolton disagrees with former President Donald Trump's assessment during his town hall last week that he could have prevented the war in Ukraine due to his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Bolton, who served as Trump's national security adviser, said Tuesday on CNN that his former boss was actually not viewed favorably by the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea.
During Wednesday's CNN town hall, Trump said that the war in Ukraine wouldn't have happened if he was president when it began in February 2022. Trump wouldn't say who he wanted to win the war before stating that he could end the conflict in 24 hours. When moderator Kaitlan Collins pressed him on how he would resolve the conflict so quickly, Trump said he would find a solution by meeting with Putin and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky.
"I have been in those rooms with [Trump] when he met with those leaders, I believe they think he's a laughing fool," Bolton said on CNN This Morning. "And the idea that somehow his presence in office would have deterred Putin is flatly wrong."
"No rational person believes that you can get the Ukrainians and the Russians to agree how to resolve it in 24 hours," Bolton told Collins and her co-host, Poppy Harlow.
Bolton added that the fact that Trump said he doesn't think in "terms of winning and losing" while talking about the Ukraine war "shows he's utterly out of touch with what the war is all about and what the implications of Russia's aggression against Ukraine are all around the world."
According to Bolton, Trump wanted to pull the United States out of the NATO alliance. By doing that, Bolton said Trump would have caused NATO to become weaker, which in turn "would have made would have made it a lot easier for the Russians to prevail."
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung addressed Bolton's comments in an email to Newsweek.
"John Bolton is a has-been who was fired for being horrible at his job and trying to force America into more wars," Cheung wrote. "Blood is on his hands."
Though Bolton was once a top adviser for Trump, he has since become a vocal critic of the former president. Last year, Bolton told Newsweek that Trump would have "given Ukraine away" had he won the 2020 presidential election and was serving a second term during the lead-up to Russia's 2022 invasion.
During his Tuesday appearance on CNN, Bolton also criticized Trump for saying during last week's town hall that he would be inclined to pardon "many" of the January 6 rioters who were convicted of federal offenses.
"I think it's virtually treasonous for the president to say he would pardon people who were trying to disrupt the work of Congress. It's another example why he's not fit to be president," Bolton said.
He added, "If anybody wants to know what a Trump administration would look like—when he's pardoning the people who rioted on January the 6th, I think that's all you need to know."
Update 05/15/23 4:00 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to include comment from Steven Cheung.
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About the writer
Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
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