When President Trump named John Bolton his third National Security Adviser in April 2018 I pondered, "Personally, I don't object to Bolton. But how long will it be before Trump starts to object? How long will it be before we're on to National Security Adviser #4?"
Well, as it turns out, it was exactly 17 months. It's 108 days longer than his predecessor H.R. McMaster and 513 days longer than Michael Flynn. But sooner or later Bolton was going to fall out of favor with Trump. Doesn't everyone not named Trump? Soon arrived last night when Trump fired Bolton and let the world know about it this morning. For his part, Bolton is claiming that he offered his resignation and Trump told him they would talk this morning. While I'm more inclined to believe Bolton, however this all transpired, this is a shit sandwich.
This is exactly why Robert Harward wanted to avoid serving the Trump Administration when he publicly declined Trump's appointment to succeed Michael Flynn back in February 2017. Harward, a former Deputy Commander of U.S. Central Command, gave the standard "I want to spend more time with my family" line. But as I observed at the time, his thinking was probably more along these lines:
What? President Trump wants me to be his National Security Adviser? Is he out of his fucking mind? Why on earth would I want to work for a guy who says he knows more about ISIS than the Generals? I'd like to keep my sanity, thank you very much.
Trump certainly couldn't have done anything to change Harward's mind when he publicly rebuked McMaster on Twitter after he had said that Russian interference in the 2016 election was "incontrovertible". Trump had wanted to dump McMaster as far back as November 2017 after only 9 months on the job because he was evidently too serious in his demeanor. One would think national security would be a serious matter to the President, but Donald Trump isn't most Presidents. Harward saw what he would be in for, thought the better of it and because of it he is a freaking genius.
Bolton strongly disagreed with Trump's desire to meet with Taliban leaders at Camp David the week of the 18th anniversary of 9/11, chafed at the President's attempt to roll back sanctions against North Korea and was at odds with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney for not being sufficiently loyal to Trump. Under the circumstances, it is astonishing that Bolton lasted this long.
All of which points to Harward's genius. Why associate your good name with someone who behaves in such an arbitrary, capricious and mercurial manner? Stick around long enough in the Trump Administration and you become known for caging children. Nothing good can come of being associated with Trump. If only the country arrives at the same conclusion in November 2020.
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