President Donald Trump says he pushed out White House National Security Adviser John Bolton.
According to Trump, the two are parting ways because he “disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions.” Trump claimed Bolton turned in his resignation this morning, and a new national security adviser will be selected next week.
Bolton was Trump’s third NSA.
“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,” Trump said in a series of tweets Tuesday. “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.”
But Bolton had a different take on how things went down.
“I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let's talk about it tomorrow,’" Bolton tweeted later on Tuesday.
Bolton also told ABC News that he left of his own volition due to an “accumulation of things.”
“I offered to resign last night,” Bolton said, according to ABC News. “He never asked for me to resign directly or indirectly. I slept on it and resigned this morning.”
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters later Tuesday that Bolton’s priorities and policies just don’t line up with the president."
“There is no one issue here...they just didn’t align on many issues,” Gidley said, according to White House press pool reports.
Bolton, who backed the Iraq War in 2003, joined the White House in April 2018, replacing Trump’s second national security adviser retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster.
Since then, media reports have indicated that the two have sparred over military intervention in many areas, including North Korea.
More recently, the announcement comes after the Washington Post reported on Aug. 30 that Bolton was not initially invited to a meeting with other top aides about the future of Afghanistan. According to the Post, Bolton’s pushback to a diplomatic solution in Afghanistan irked Trump and the two were at odds over policy options.
Bolton ultimately did attend the meeting after his aides put pressure on White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, the Post reported, citing a U.S. official. Other leaders who attended the meeting included Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and others.
Additionally, CNN reports that Trump was frustrated by media reports detailing Bolton’s opposition to hosting Taliban leaders at Camp David this week. The meeting was ultimately called off by Trump over the weekend.
A senior administration official also said that Trump’s annoyance with Bolton has grown in recent months, and that Trump believed Bolton was undermining him.
Bolton previously served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush.
