John Bolton Trashes ‘Juvenile’ Trump, Says He Didn’t Have Enough ‘Advance Thinking’ for a Coup

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton trashed his former boss, President Donald Trump, calling him “juvenile” and suggesting he lacked the mental agility to engage in a “coup.”

He was addressing Trump’s response to the revelation that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley contemplated the possibility he would stage a coup after the election. “If I was going to do a coup, one of the last people I would want to do it with is General Mark Milley,” Trump said in a Thursday statement.

In a Friday interview with CNN’s Brianna Keilar, John Bolton called the statement “juvenile” and added, “It’s unbecoming of a former president of the United States to refer to people who served the country well and served in his administration as if they’re in a kindergarten class. And it’s a sad commentary on Trump himself, but I think also reflective of much of his behavior during four years in office. And I’m laughing, but I shouldn’t laugh because it’s more serious than that, but it’s so typical that I can’t stop myself.”

Keilar also asked Bolton whether he had changed his mind about a statement he made in November that Trump lacked the foresight to engage in a coup. Bolton replied that he had not. “The idea of Trump staging a coup does give him too much credit,” he said. “That requires advance thinking, planning, strategizing, building up support, and I just don’t think he’s capable of that. What he was capable of was on a daily basis doing something more and more outrageous than he had done the day before, all to the same end of staying in power. But the notion that Trump could have orchestrated a coup does give him too much credit.”

Bolton served Trump in the White House from April 2018 until Trump fired him in September 2019. The duo disagreed on issues including North Korea, Iran, and Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, with Bolton urging Trump to take a more hawkish stance on each one. Trump said after Bolton’s departure the U.S. would “be in world war six” if he had stayed on Trump’s team.

Watch above via CNN.