Follow us on social

John Bolton is not your hero, no matter what his book says

John Bolton is not your hero, no matter what his book says

In short, John Bolton is the worst of both foreign policy worlds: nihilistically nationalistic in his ends, interventionist in his means.

Analysis | Washington Politics

John Bolton’s widely-anticipated tell-all about his time as Donald Trump’s national security adviser has been cleared for publication. If the release is anything like the build-up, it will come with a hefty dose of rehabilitation for one of the worst actors in American politics.

Earlier this year, when many were convinced that Trump’s impeachment would be the news story of the decade, Bolton announced that his upcoming memoir would contain information corroborating accusations of Trump’s abuse of power. The revelation briefly threatened Republican hopes for a prompt acquittal and spurred calls for Bolton to take the stand.

At that time, Fox News host Lou Dobbs looked into a camera and, with a straight face, called John Bolton “a tool for the Left.” As military affairs writer Kelsey Atherton so colorfully put it, Dobbs’ segment “will probably be the thing that makes my heart give out, my body explode in a supernova of stammering and frustration.”

But it wasn't just the far right seeing Bolton in a profoundly ill-informed new light. Before the Senate decided against hearing witnesses in the trial, reasonable demands from Democrats to hear Bolton’s evidence had already morphed into something far more insidious — and bizarre: praise for the man himself.

Now, with the release of the memoir imminent, the nightmare has started again. Commentators are already casting aside all consideration of who John Bolton is and what he has done with his life, instead allocating praise and condemnation based purely on whether he is with or against Donald Trump at a given moment.

While many remain bitter that he didn’t testify during Trump’s impeachment trial, that hasn’t stopped the press from fawning over every drop of information released about the book. A recent Washington Post piece had this to say: “Bolton made one fateful misjudgment. He overestimated the character, honor and patriotism of Senate Republicans.” Yes, John Bolton’s fatal flaw is that he is just too principled.

Before the memoir is published and Bolton becomes the new hero of a certain strand of anti-Trump liberalism, let’s take a look back at his legacy.

Bolton’s record of malicious foreign policy positions started early. He began his political life as a supporter of the racist and trigger-happy presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater in 1964, and would later become an acolyte of segregationist senator Jesse Helms. In 1966, the idealistic young college student would foreshadow his later life’s work by writing an op-ed for the Yale newspaper titled “No Peace in Vietnam.”

Working in the Justice Department during the Reagan years, Bolton fought against reparations for Japanese-Americans who had been forced into internment camps during World War II and repeatedly withheld documents to prevent the public from learning the details of what would become the Iran-Contra affair.

In the 90s, as Senior Vice President of the war-friendly think tank the American Enterprise Institute, Bolton became a leading advocate for recognizing Taiwan as an independent country, while secretly receiving tens of thousands of dollars from the government of Taiwan.

Under President George W. Bush, Bolton served as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs. Ironically, Bolton used this position to do everything possible to destroy existing arms control treaties and accelerate the nuclear arms race. In one instance, he even blocked a U.N. initiative to prohibit the private ownership of grenade launchers.

The only times Bolton seemed to care about arms control was when he was baselessly accusing other countries, like Cuba and Syria, of developing biological and chemical weapons. But these lies were just a warm-up — Bolton was one of the leading advocates of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and helped orchestrate the campaign of disinformation about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction to make that invasion a reality.

In 2005, Bolton took a new post in the Bush administration, becoming Ambassador to the United Nations — though he was never actually confirmed for the position, and only served because of a temporary recess appointment — despite his professed disdain for the institution. He famously declared that if the U.N. Secretariat building lost ten stories it “wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”

While Bolton’s history of malignant foreign policy positions is long and varied, he is perhaps best known for his unending hostility toward and saber-rattling at North Korea and Iran.

Throughout his career, and during his short tenure in the Trump administration especially, Bolton obstructed all efforts at diplomatic engagement with North Korea. Instead, he repeatedly called for war, once penning a Wall Street Journal article arguing that the U.S. legally could, and should, launch unprovoked military strikes against the country.

Bolton’s lust for war with North Korea can only be matched by his longing to bomb Iran. In administration after administration, Bolton has been the head cheerleader for war with Iran. While his dreams of all-out war have so far been deferred — though the U.S. campaign of economic warfare rages on — his actions have brought us much closer to it. Bolton’s influence was instrumental in convincing Trump to pull out of the successful multilateral Iran nuclear deal, which was in turn one of the key factors in bringing the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war earlier this year.

In short, John Bolton is the worst of both foreign policy worlds: nihilistically nationalistic in his ends, interventionist in his means. His policy record demonstrates not one iota of care for the lives of foreigners — and little more for the lives of Americans. Instead, it shows that Bolton believes war is the answer to every question that hasn’t been asked.

The roots of U.S. empire reach far deeper than any one man. But as far as it’s possible, John Bolton is the physical embodiment of all that is wrong with U.S. foreign policy.

Fortunately, some commentators have managed to walk the line of reporting Bolton’s revelations about Trump without lionizing him. And I have yet to see a “Mustacharita” or “Bolton Bellini” at the newly-reopened DC happy hour haunts.

But the persistent head-in-the-sand belief that all of politics should be understood in either pro- or anti-Trump terms has inspired senseless fawning in the past. FBI Director Robert Mueller helped sell the public on war with Iraq before becoming the subject of embarrassing t-shirts, or being photoshopped onto the bodies of saints to sell prayer candles. And George W. Bush has inspired widespread liberal adoration simply by sharing a cough drop with Michelle Obama and being slightly less crass in his war crimes than Trump.

Bolton’s evidence should have been heard in trial, and his testimony as a witness to Trump’s corruption remains important — but in the days ahead, for one of the most abhorrent people in the history of abhorrent U.S. foreign policy, let’s skip the canonization. John Bolton deserves no one's praise.


(Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)|Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead
Analysis | Washington Politics
Trump and Keith Kellogg
Top photo credit: U.S. President Donald Trump and Keith Kellogg (now Trump's Ukraine envoy) in 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Trump's silence on loss of Ukraine lithium territory speaks volumes

Europe

Last week, Russian military forces seized a valuable lithium field in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the latest success of Moscow’s grinding summer offensive.

The lithium deposit in question is considered rather small by industry analysts, but is said to be a desirable prize nonetheless due to the concentration and high-quality of its ore. In other words, it is just the kind of asset that the Trump administration seemed eager to exploit when it signed its much heralded minerals agreement with Ukraine earlier this year.

keep readingShow less
Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?
Top photo credit: Palestinians walk to collect aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

Is the US now funding the bloodbath at Gaza aid centers?

Middle East

Many human rights organizations say it should shut down. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed hundreds of Palestinians at or around its aid centers. And yet, the U.S. has committed no less than $30 million toward the controversial, Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

As famine-like conditions grip Gaza, the GHF says it has given over 50 million meals to Palestinians at its four aid centers in central and southern Gaza Strip since late May. These centers are operated by armed U.S. private contractors, and secured by IDF forces present at or near them.

keep readingShow less
mali
Heads of state of Mali, Assimi Goita, Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani and Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore, pose for photographs during the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger July 6, 2024. REUTERS/Mahamadou Hamidou//File Photo

Post-coup juntas across the Sahel face serious crises

Africa

In Mali, General Assimi Goïta, who took power in a 2020 coup, now plans to remain in power through at least the end of this decade, as do his counterparts in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. As long-ruling juntas consolidate power in national capitals, much of the Sahelian terrain remains out of government control.

Recent attacks on government security forces in Djibo (Burkina Faso), Timbuktu (Mali), and Eknewane (Niger) have all underscored the depth of the insecurity. The Sahelian governments face a powerful threat from jihadist forces in two organizations, Jama‘at Nusrat al-Islam wa-l-Muslimin (the Group for Supporting Islam and Muslims, JNIM, which is part of al-Qaida) and the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP). The Sahelian governments also face conventional rebel challengers and interact, sometimes in cooperation and sometimes in tension, with various vigilantes and community-based armed groups.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.