Donald Trump’s ex-National Security Advisor John Bolton has flagged a possible tilt against his former boss in a run for the White House in 2024, a UK television report has claimed.
According to the Good Morning Britain television show, Bolton’s push for the Republican nomination is an attempt to thwart both his former boss and his political comeback aspirations.
“Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton has told us that he will run for US President in a bid to stop his former boss from getting the nomination,” the British television show tweeted Friday morning.
In a report introducing a live exchange with Bolton, the show said: “John Bolton has exclusively told ‘Good Morning Britain’ he wants to become the next president of the United States.”
In the video clip accompanying the show, the 74-year-old is asked by Good Morning Britain what a John Bolton America would look like if he was in the White House:
“I would get in to win the nomination,” he said. “And I would do it primarily on the basis that we need a much stronger foreign policy. And I think it is important that it is understood, not just in Moscow, but is understood in places like Beijing — that unprovoked aggression against your neighbors is not something the United States and its allies would tolerate.”
Commenting on Trump’s influence in the Republican Party, Bolton said: “I think Trump support within the party itself is in terminal decline.”
Bolton served as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs from 2001 to 2005, then was appointed U.S. ambassador to the U.N., while also campaigning for the Iraq War as director of the Project for the New American Century.
Under Trump, Bolton served from April 2018 to September 2019 as national security adviser, two years after he was overlooked as a potential secretary of state.
He has never sought to disguise his antipathy towards Trump in the years since they parted ways.
Trump has said he fired Bolton, while Bolton claims he resigned, as Breitbart News reported.
Trump remains the only Republican to announce their candidacy for the 2024 election, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is widely expected to run.