Even John Bolton Thinks Trump Went Too Far With Iran War: ‘A Lot of Self-Inflicted Mistakes’

Former White House national security adviser and prominent war hawk John Bolton criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of his ongoing war with Iran on Monday.

During an appearance on NewsNation’s Cuomo, Bolton said, “I think it’s a lot of self-inflicted mistakes, and I speak as someone who applauds the goal of overthrowing the regime in Tehran.”

He continued:

I want this war to succeed in what I think was at least its original objective, but Trump made some critical mistakes, the effects of which are becoming more apparent. Before the war, he did not prepare the American people, and I don’t mean by telling them what the operation would be or how long it would be, but by making what I think is a very compelling case that the Iranian nuclear threat and the Iranian terrorism threat affect us directly, affect our friends and allies like Israel, like the Gulf Arabs, like Europe in particular, and that after 25 or 30 years of negotiation, we were coming to the view that the only way this was going to be solved would be by eliminating the regime.

Now, there are a lot of different ways to do it. You don’t do it in 24 or 48 hours. Trump did almost nothing. We learned the war was beginning in remarks he made at 2:30 on Saturday morning, on the first day. That was a mistake. A corollary mistake was he didn’t prepare Congress for it either, and as you’ve already said, he certainly didn’t prepare the allies. Those failures in advance are coming home to roost now.

Bolton also criticized Trump for not sufficiently coordinating with opposition against the government inside Iran and for not warning allies reliant on oil from the Middle East that the Strait of Hormuz could be closed.

“I also don’t think he coordinated with the opposition inside Iran enough. That’s another big failing, the effect of which we’re gonna see,” he told NewsNation host Chris Cuomo. “But to come to the allies, look, I don’t think Donald Trump has really ever understood how NATO works. He doesn’t. He sees it simply in dollars and cents terms.”

Bolton argued, “I can’t say that advance consultation would’ve guaranteed participation by anybody, but by telling them, by explaining again, by making the case, at least he would’ve been able to say we prepared them for the risk of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is the most imminent problem. We didn’t do that with the NATO allies, we didn’t do that with the Gulf Arab states, for goodness’ sakes, at least not apparently.”

“And we didn’t do it with our Pacific allies – South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and others – who get a lot of the oil, most of the oil from the Middle East,” he concluded. “The overwhelming percentage goes to East Asia, most to China, but a lot to our friends, and that’s harming us right now.”

Watch above via NewsNation.

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