What did John Bolton say about Trump? Ex-NSA’s past comments surface amid FBI raid

John Bolton, who served as the US National Security Adviser (NSA) during Donald Trump's first term, was the target of an FBI raid on Friday, August 22. The agency raided the Maryland home and Washington office of the former NSA, sources told the Associated Press, as part of a probe into the handling of classified information. The 76-year-old was not detained by the FBI and has not been charged with any crimes, an insider told the outlet.

Also read: ‘No one is above law’: Kash Patel's cryptic post as FBI raids John Bolton’s house

Bolton served as the NSA for 17 months in the president's first term. Once a supporter of the Republican leader, he later became critical of the administration’s policies. When Trump came to power again in January, he revoked the security clearances of four dozen former intelligence officials, including Bolton. His security details were also canceled by the US president.

In an ABC interview earlier this month, Bolton was asked about the possibility of the Trump administration taking action against him. The former NSA stated Trump had “already come after” him by taking away his security detail, calling his second term “a retribution presidency.”

Also read: 'Sanctions don't prohibit': Former Trump NSA John Bolton on India buying Russian oil

In a previous interview with Hindustan Times, Bolton slammed Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on India for its purchases of Russian oil. The former US ambassador to the United Nations stated that the sanctions imposed on Russian oil by the West do not prohibit countries from purchasing the commodity at the capped price and selling it at a higher price. He added that if this was the complaint at the heart of the matter, then the fault was with the tariffs, not with New Delhi.

Before Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Bolton wrote a critical article in The Telegraph, criticizing the summit. In his article, John Bolton said that inviting Putin to Alaska was “not quite as offensive as inviting the Taliban to Camp David in 2019 to discuss the Afghanistan war, but it comes close.” He explained that the Russian President had claimed a major propaganda victory with the meeting.

Slamming Trump’s foreign policies, Bolton wrote, “Putin not only got his meeting, but TACO (“Trump always chickens out”) worked again; August 8 came and went with no new tariffs or sanctions imposed on Moscow, or China, the largest purchaser of Russian oil and gas. Only India was left in the lurch, facing a doubling of its Trump tariff rate to 50 per cent for purchasing Russian hydrocarbons.”

John Bolton has frequently slammed the US president. In his book The Room Where It Happened, he portrayed the republican leader as grossly ill-informed when it came to foreign policy, adding that he was “stunningly uninformed” about how the White House and the federal government should be run, AP reported.

Trump responded by calling Bolton a “crazy” war-monger who would have led the country into “World War Six.”

Sources told the Associated Press that the raid was part of an investigation concerning the handling of classified information.

He has been critical of the Trump administration’s policies regarding tariffs and the Russia-Ukraine war.

He called it a major propaganda victory for the Russian leader.

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