John Bolton is a 'grenade ready to blow up the administration': conservative columnist

The Republican Party of January 2020 has yet to turn against President Donald Trump in the way that so many Republicans were turning against President Richard Nixon in August 1974, when Nixon decided that it would be easier to resign and let Vice President Gerald R. Ford take over than wait around to be removed from office via an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. But former National Security Adviser John Bolton is one right-wing Republican who certainly cannot be accused of having unwavering loyalty to Trump, and conservative Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin compares Bolton to John Dean in a January 28 column.

“We once speculated that sooner or later, Bolton would figure out that playing the role of John Dean — the once-loyal adviser to President Richard M. Nixon who pulled down the whole administration — is much better for one’s career and book sales than clamming up is,” asserts Rubin, a Never Trump conservative who has been consistently critical of the president.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that Bolton makes a very damning allegation against Trump in a leaked copy of his book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir” — which isn’t due out until March 17 but has Trumpistas in a state of rage. The allegation: Trump told Bolton himself that he was making an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, a condition of military aid to Ukraine — no investigation, no military aid.

“Bolton is already, as one would expect, getting hammered by the Trumpist crowd, which decries his disloyalty,” Rubin explains. “Bolton must have known this was coming and apparently, has decided to leave the Trump cocoon. He has no future with them and no place in the Trump cult. What Bolton does have is the truth, likely backed up by notes that speak to Trump’s impeachable acts, ignorance about foreign policy, affinity for conspiracy theories, oddly sympathetic view of Russia and determination to spout Russian propaganda.”

Bolton, according to testimony from foreign affairs expert Fiona Hill, described Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, as a “hand grenade” who was going to blow up Trump’s administration by pushing for a Bidens investigation in Ukraine. But according to Rubin, Bolton is the one who Trump has to worry about.

“It is not Giuliani who is the grenade ready to blow up the administration,” Rubin writes. “It is Bolton.”