WASHINGTON DC – Mr Donald Trump on Tuesday sacked his national security adviser John Bolton amid several disagreements over the US President’s policies, among them the handling of the Taliban and North Korea issues.
In a tweet, Mr Trump said Mr Bolton “strongly disagreed with many of his suggestions as did others in the administration.”
“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning,” Trump tweeted. “I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week,” he added.
Bolton tweeted minutes after Trump’s announcement, “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow.”
According to CNN, Trump decided to sack Bolton after receiving reports that the security adviser opposed the president’s decision to host leaders of the Taliban at Camp David. The President announced the plans for the meeting were canceled on Saturday.
Mr Bolton replaced HR McMaster last year and at first seemed to side with Mr Trump on the US exit from the Iran nuclear deal. However, he soon began to clash with the President’s vision for diplomacy in North Korea and most recently on Afghanistan, CNN reports.
The campaign by Trump allies to push Bolton out of the administration had ramped up in recent weeks, multiple sources told CNN.
A senior administration official is quoted by CNN as saying that Trump has been getting more and more irritated with Bolton over the past several months for his statements on Iran, Venezuela and now Afghanistan.
Trump no longer believed Bolton could advocate for the President’s agenda, and instead felt he was harming his credibility, the official said.
Trump also felt like Bolton wasn’t a forceful enough advocate for him in the media — and that when he did make appearances, he wasn’t convincing enough, since it was evident he didn’t believe in some of Trump’s foreign policy goals, the source added
