Former National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that President-elect Donald Trump’s demand for “fealty” from his advisers will not serve him well.
Host Jake Tapper said, “On Sunday as President-elect Trump forms his cabinet, Donald Trump Jr. reposted a tweet that said, We need maximum pressure to keep all Neocons and war hawks out of the Trump administration.’ to which he replied, ‘Agreed, I am on it.’ It sounds like Don Jr and JD Vance and I know he was talking about people like you and it sounds like Don Jr. was agreeing also maybe. I am wondering how you view what they are saying with some of the picks we have heard?”
Bolton said, “Let’s start with the remark by JD Vance. It shows a superficiality if his understanding of how the government runs. The complaints I had, and I won’t get others roped into it, were the way Trump behaved in office showed he wasn’t fit for office and it had nothing to do with his substantive decisions but among other things his unwillingness to take responsibility for the very decisions he had made. I think there is a group of people who think they are going to be able to screen out people, not on the basis of philosophy so much but their attitude toward the president. The word loyalty is often used. I think that’s the wrong word actually. I think what Trump wants from his advisers his fealty, really a futile sense of subservience. He may get that, but I will tell you that that won’t serve him well over the course of his next term and it certainly won’t serve the country well.”
Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN
