‘I Don’t Think He Understands Anything’: John Bolton Torches Trump Over Plan for Venezuela

Ex-Trump national security adviser John Bolton torched his old boss over his dismissal of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, arguing that the president doesn’t understand “anything” during a Tuesday morning appearance on CNN.

Shortly his administration took erstwhile dictator Nicolás Maduro into custody, Trump asserted that Machado “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to succeed Maduro.

“I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader,” said Trump.

On Tuesday, anchor Kate Bolduan asked Bolton if he thought Machado should be Venezuela’s next leader, as well as why “Donald Trump isn’t on board?”

Bolton replied:

Well, I think unquestionably she and Edmundo González, who stood in for her as the actual opposition candidate for president and from whom the election was stolen, are both really the legitimate government of Venezuela, but also a fundamental plank in the legitimacy of the action that Trump took in removing Maduro from Venezuela. When he is not a legitimate head of state, as we believe when we’re acting at the request of the legitimate government, that’s perfectly okay under anybody’s definition of international law. And I think the administration is making a big mistake by throwing Machado under the buses they did on Saturday and thinking that they can negotiate with Delcy Rodríguez somehow to have a stable transition, that Rodriguez and the other Maduro loyalists are not going negotiate their own exit from power, at least not for the foreseeable future. It’s the opposition in Venezuela that voted overwhelmingly against Maduro that clearly supports Machado and Gonzalez. Those are the people who can help provide stability, not the failed Maduro regime.

“When you say that this gets to the-, a fundamental plank in the legitimacy of what Donald Trump pulled off, do you think the fact that they are not putting their support behind the opposition movement that, I don’t know, suggests that the operation is, or the motivation for this is in violation of international law?” followed up Bolduan.

“I think Trump’s mind is very confused about this. I don’t think he understands anything about what we just talked about,” answered Bolton. “There’s a very interesting story in the Financial Times this morning. I’ve not seen this anywhere else, that Delcy Rodríguez negotiated in Washington last year under a theory that Maduro would go into exile in Cuba and that she would take over the government. I had not seen that before, I don’t think they’ve seen it in Venezuela. That’s gonna be interesting to see how she explains that to the likes of the defense minister, Vladimir Padrino. I think the administration’s notion they can rely on anybody in the Maduro regime to keep up to any of the promises they make is badly misplaced. And what was clearly a positive, getting rid of Maduro, can turn south very quickly if what is really the rest of the regime keeps itself in power and represses the opposition.”

Watch above via CNN.