John Bolton declares Trump a ‘useful idiot’ for foreign dictators — and not just Vladimir Putin

On Monday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," former National Security Adviser John Bolton — a longtime hardline foreign policy conservative who clashed frequently with President Donald Trump — agreed with the assessment of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman that the president was a "useful idiot" for Russian President Vladimit Putin, and other foreign strongmen.

"My own view was that Trump just despised any indication that somehow Russia had influenced his election in 2016, because he felt it would delegitimize it," said Bolton. "I thought that was the wrong way to approach it. Russia tried to intervene, the president should have stood up to it, but he was simply in denial of it because he thought it would undercut his current position. As far as him being a useful idiot in the communist sense, really, it is a statement that the person involved doesn't fully understand the consequences of his actions, and I think that describes Donald Trump in many, many respects."

"So you agree with Vindman that President Trump is a Russian useful idiot?" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.

"Well, I think his behavior, almost across the board in international affairs, betrays lack of analysis, lack of consideration of the consequences of what he does, whether it is Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping or Kim Jong-un," he said, listing the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea.

Watch below: