‘Lost at Sea!’ John Bolton Says Trump’s Latest Foreign Policy Moves Show ‘He’s Floundering’

John Bolton warned President Donald Trump was “lost at sea” and “floundering” on foreign policy Tuesday, arguing that his threats against U.S. allies and concessions to North Korea show he “doesn’t know what to do.”

Bolton, who served as Trump’s White House national security adviser during his first term, delivered the stinging assessment during an appearance on MS NOW after host Peter Alexander asked about the president’s threat to “bomb the sh*t out of Oman” – a key ally in negotiations with Iran.

“How does that undercut America’s strategic relationships in that region?” the host asked.

“Well, it obviously damages them,” Bolton said, while questioning Oman’s suitability as a mediator because of its longstanding relationship with Iran.

“But, you know, Trump has to stop talking about whatever thought comes into his brain and giving vent to it,” he continued. “I think that kind of conversation is evidence he’s lost at sea, he’s floundering, he doesn’t know what to do.”

Alexander then pivoted to Trump’s decision to scale back U.S. military exercises in South Korea after the president described North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “unthreatening” and “respectful.”

Bolton recalled Trump making promises to that end during his 2018 summit in Singapore: “In the middle of the conversation, out of nowhere, certainly unknown to me or the other Americans in the room there with him, Trump said ‘I’m going to cancel these war games’ – as he called them – because they were expensive and provocative. He agreed with what Kim Jong-un had said.”

“It was an unforced concession. It was a mistake. It was a mistake then, it’s an even bigger mistake now,” he added.

The former Trump official argued the decision would reverberate beyond the Korean peninsula and warned that Iran would interpret the move as “more evidence of desperation.”

Bolton, who has become a fierce Trump critic since leaving the administration, also blamed the president’s approach on his tendency to view international relations through his relationships with foreign leaders.

After meeting Kim Jong-Un, Bolton noted, Trump famously said the pair “fell in love.”

“And that’s how Trump sees foreign affairs,” Bolton said. “If he has a good personal relationship with Kim, with [China’s leader] Xi Jinping, with [Russian leader] Vladimir Putin, he thinks the U.S. has good state-to-state relations with the country and its just simply not true.”

“It shows Trump doesn’t think strategically,” he concluded. “He can’t define American national interest. He thinks it’s all personal to him.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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